X//' ^f 



NIAGARA 



ITS 



HISTORY AND GEOLOGY, 



INCIDENTS AND POETRY, 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 



^(3RGE w.^holley. 

h\ -St (■; 

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SHELDfMSi.ND COMPANY. 



BREED, 

hunte: 



D CO., BUFFALO, N.Y. 
ND CO., TORONTO. 

72. 




jTi^i 



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Entered according tcJ.^jifcjffCongress in the year 1872, by 

GEORGE W. HOLLEY, 
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



Hunter, Rose, & Co., 
Printers, Toronto, Canada.. 



i0 tht ^^t^at^ 

OF MY DEPARTED FRIENDS 

PETER A. PORTER 

AND 

JOEL R. ROBINSON 

I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME. 

In the conventional code of human homiletics they were 
separated in their Hves by the accident of birth and difference 
of education ; but by their unselfish natures, their genial and 
gentle susceptibilities and sympathies, their love of Nature 
and thorough enjoyment of its ever varying moods and 
phases, they were on fit occasions fit and willing associates. 

The one, answering the sharp, quick summons of the battle 
field, gave his life for his country. 

The other, after having repeatedly saved the life of others, 
gave up his own from a bed of sickness. 

In that sphere of divine and all embracing Charity whither 
they have gone, the pure gold of their lives, freed from all 
earthly alloy, will shine with equal lustre, and they who were 
companions in time may be friends forever. 

With them the author had many pleasant excursions on 
the waters and along the shores of the Niagara River. ^ "^ 
•^ -Jf- * Will the links of the broken chain be reunited in 
the Endless Hereafter ? 

GEORGE W. HOLLEY. 



ERRATA 



On page 15, line 16, for '^ Vista '^ read ^^ Vesfa." 

On page 28, line 8, omit "the'^ before " Niagara/' 

On page 53, line 25, in part of this edition the word 

" geodiferous " is erroneously spelt " grodiferous/' 
On page 59, line 9, for "those" read "these." 
On page 73, line 12, for "gradually" read "grandly." 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Dedication iii 

Preface ix 

CHAPTER I. 

First discovery of the country — Artillery and the sword 
precursors of the Cross — The Cabots — Portuguese — 
Gasper Cortoreal — First French expedition — Verrez- 
anna — Second French expedition — Jacques Cartier — 
Size of his vessels — Modern yachts — Cartier^s second 
expedition — First hears of the great Cataract — Cham- 
plain — Father Ragueneau — Father Hennepin's first 
and second visits to the Falls — Carriage drive under 
the American Falls — Rattlesnakes — Professor Kalm. . 13. 

CHAPTER II. 

1687 — Baron La Hontan — Description of the Falls — 
Beasts and fish drawn over them — Taken out by In- 
dians — Their canoes precede the white man's skiff and 
yawl — 1721 — M.Charlevoix — Letter to Madame Main- 
tenon — Number of Falls — Geological indications — 
Great projection of the rock — Cave of the Winds — Pass- 
ing through it — Exhilarating trip — Rainbows 20 * 

CHAPTER III. 

The name Niagara — Baron La Hontan — Beautiful lan- 
guage of the Hurons — Jesuit Missionaries reach Niag- 
ara in 1626 — Oldest of Indian names — Splendid terri- 
tory to which it belonged — Description of the river — 
Immense drainage 24> 

CHAPTER IV. 

Niagara a tribal name — Other names given to the tribe, 
and why — Father Lalement's letter — Niagaras a su- 



vi Contents, 

PAGE, 
perior race — Indian language — Full sound of vowels — 
Corrupt abbreviations — Triie pronunciation — End of 
French rule in America — United States and Great 
Britain now owners of Niagara 28 

CHAPTER V. 

The lower Niagara — La Salle's first entrance to it — 
First defensive work — Fort Niagara — Fort Miss- 
issauga — Niagara village — Lewiston — Portage around 
the Falls — First railroad in the United States — 
Fort Schlosser — Old orchard — Queenston — Butler — 
Ambuscade at DeviFs Hole — Cayuga Creek — The 
Griffin^ first vessel-;-Navy Island — Niagara frontier. 34 

CHAPTER VI. 

America the old world — Geologically recent origin of 
the Falls^Evidence thereof — Captain William^s sur- 
veys for ship canal — Former extent of Lake Michigan — 
Its outlet into Illinois River — The Niagara Barrier — 
How broken through — Niagara born 43 

CHAPTER VII. 

Composition of terrace cut through — Why retrocession 
is possible — Three sections from Lewiston to Falls — 
DeviFs Hole — Medina group — Recession long check- 
ed — Whirlpool — Soon cut out — ^Outlet,narrowest part of 
river — Rapids above — The mirror^Depth of water 
and chasm — Former grand Fall — Height of Falls. . . 53 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Recession above present position — Falls will be higher 
as they recede — Reason Why — Possible new feature — 
Present and former accumulations of rock — How re- 
moved — Terrific power of the elements — Iceland ice 
bridges 62 

CHAPTER IX. 

Niagara in winter — Frozen spray — Ice foliage and ice 
apples — Frozen sunlight — Frozen rainbows — Ice-moss 
— Frozen fog — Rataplan of icicles — Ice islands — Ice 



Contents. vii 

PAGE. 
Statues — Sleigh-riding on American rapids — Boys 
coasting on them — Ice gorge — Ice pulling up trees — Re- 
markable geognosy of earth's surface — Bottom of Lake 
Huron below tide water 69 

CHAPTER X. 

Judge Porter— General Porter — Goat Island — Origin 
of its name — Its diminution — Early dates found on 
trees and in rock — Visited by the Indians — Kalm's 
wonderful story — Bridges to the Island — Method of 
construction — Red Jacket — Anecdotes^Stone Tower 
■^-Biddle stairs — Sam Patch — Depth of water on the 
Horse-shoe — Ships sent over the Falls — Animals on 
board 76 

CHAPTER XI. 

First and last navigator of the Rapids — Rescue of Chap- 
in — Of Allen — Of property from canal boat — Takes the 
Maid of the Mist through the Whirlpool — Descrip- 
tion of the voyage — His companions — Effect upon Rob- 
inson — Biographical notice — His body mouldering in 
an unmarked grave — The heroines of Lonestone and 
Newport, Grace Darling and Ida Lewis. 88^ 

CHAPTER XIL 

Fisher and bear in canoe — Frightful experience in the 
ice — Early farming on the Niagara — Fruit growing 
— Original forest — Testimony of the trees— First Ho- 
tel — International — General Whitney — Cataract House 
— Distinguished visitors — Carriage road down the 
Canada bank — Pavilion — Ontario House — Clifton 
House — Museum — Table and Termination Rocks — 
Burning Spring — Lundy's Lane — Battle — Anecdotes.. 99 

CHAPTER XIIL 

Incidents — Fall of Table Rock— Remarkable phenom- 
enon in river — Consequences — Driving and lumbering 
on the Rapids — Capture of a large turtle — Points of 
Compass — First view of Falls — Disappointment — Fall, 
seen from below — Lunar bow — Golden spray — Gull 
Island and gulls — Highest water ever known — Perform- 
ance of a fish hawk — Of an eagle — Hermit of the Falls, no 



viii Contents, 

PAGE. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Avery on the log — Young man and girl over the Falls — 
Death of Miss Rugg — Singular Monument — Competi- 
tion for business stand — Swans— Eagles — Crows — 
Ducks over the Falls — Dogs go over and live — Reason 
why — Water cones 121 

CHAPTER XV. 

Niagara and Bridal Tourists — Anecdotes — Bridges to the 
Moss Islands — Railway at the Ferry — Persons over 
the Falls — Other accidents — First Suspension Bridge 
— Railway Suspension Bridge — Mr. Charles Ellet — 
Mr. John E. Robeling — Extraordinary motion of Bridge 
— De Veaux College — Lewiston Suspension Bridge — 
Suspension Bridge at the Falls, 1 29 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Blondin — Effect of his "ascensions" — Prince of Wales — 
His visit to American side — Escort of boys — Testing 
his broad-cloth — Grand illumination of the Falls — 
Steamer Caroline — Workshops and rubbish along the 
banks — Time of recession of the Falls 1 44 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Poetry — Table Rock albums — Light literature — More se- 
rious efforts — Colonel Porter— Willis G. Clark — Lord 
Morpeth— M. F. Tupper— A. S. Ridgely— J. G. C. 
Brainard , 153 



PREFACE. 



ALTHOUGH every place which has been the 
home of human beings has a history more or 
less interesting and more or less known, yet it may 
be doubted whether any place on the globe so famous 
as Niagara is so little known (if the Milesianism may 
be allowed) in reference to what may be called its 
individual history. To supply that deficiency is the 
main object of this work. 

The writer, having resided in the village of Niagara 
Falls nearly a third of a century, has had the oppor- 
tunity to become thoroughly acquainted with the local- 
ity, and to study it with constantly increasing interest 
and admiration. It is like old wine and old friends. 
It never palls or wearies ; never provokes or disap- 
points. Like a beautiful and true, an excellent and ad- 
mirable mistress, the faithful lover may return to it with 
ever new delight, ever growing affection. It will humor 
and minister to all his better thoughts and aspirations, 

reprove and repress all his baser appetites and passions. 

It is a humanizer in many ways. It is so great, so 



X Preface. 

grand, so glorious, that, while looking at it, the small 
things of men and the world are revulsed and forgotten, 
and the soul, like its spray released from its ponder- 
ables, mounts heavenward. 

Long observation enables the writer to offer some 
new suggestions in regard to the Geological age of the 
Falls, their retrocession, and the causes which have 
been potent in producing it ; and also to demonstrate 
the existence of a barrier or dam that was once the 
shore of an immense fresh water sea, which reached 
from Niagara to Lake Michigan, and emptied its waters 
into the Gulf of Mexico. 

Whoever undertakes to write comprehensively on this^ 
subject, will soon become aware of the weakness of 
exclamation points and adjectives, and the almost irre- 
sistible temptation to indulge in a style of composition 
which he cannot maintam, and should not if he could. 
So far as, the writer, yielding to the inspiration of his 
theme and in opposition to all resolutions to the con- 
trary, may have trespassed in this direction, he bares 
and bows his head to the severest treatment that the 
critic may adopt. His labor has been one of love, and. 
in giving its results to the public he regrets that it is 
not more worthy of the subject. 



Preface. xi 

As it is hoped that the work may be useful to future 
visitors to the Falls, and also possess some interest for 
those who have seen them before, it seemed desirable 
to avoid the introduction of notes and the citation of 
authorities. For this reason several paragraphs are 
placed in the text which would otherwise have been 
introduced in notes. This is especially true in the 
chapter of local history, which will interest the local 
more than the general reader. 

The writer is especially indebted to the Hon. Orsa- 
mus H. Marshall, of Buffalo, for a copy of his admi- 
rable ''' Historical Sketches," and for access to his unri- 
valled Library of American History. The Documentary 
History and Colonial Documents of the State of New 
York ; *' The Relations of the Jesuits ;" the works of 
other early French missionaries, travelers, and adven- 
turers, made charmingly familiar to the public — as well 
as their own writings — by the con amove and indefat- 
igable labors of Shea and Parkman, have all helped to 
make the writer's task an easy and agreeable one. 
Scholars, who may wish to do so, will easily verify all 
the facts he has stated, except such as are the result 
of his own observation. He hopes it is unnecessary 
to state that, although certain names and places are 



xii Preface. 

favorably mentioned, no " arrangement " whatever has 
been made with any person or parties. 

The greater part of the historical narrative was read 
before the Buffalo Historical Society, in February, 1871; 
and the geological portion, with some modifications, 
before the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, at Indianapolis, in August of the same 
year. 

Niagara Falls, N.Y., 
May 1st, 1872. 



m 



PART FIRST. 



CHAPTER I. 

HISTORY. 

First discovery of the country — Artillery and the sword pre- 
cursors of the Cross — The Cabots — Portuguese — Gasper 
Cortoreal — First French expedition — Verrezanna — Second 
French expedition — Jacques Cartier — Size of his vessels — 
Modern yachts — Cartier's second expedition — First hears 
of the great Cataract — Champlain — Father Ragueneau — 
Father Hennepin's first and second visits to the Falls — 
Carriage drive under the American Falls — Rattlesnakes — 
Professor Kalm. 

NOT long after the Spanish settlement in Florida 
and the English settlement in Virginia, but before 
the Puritans had said their prayers on Plymouth Rock 
and made the adjacent wilderness vocal wdth their nasal 
harmonies, the monks of St. Francis, pioneered by a 
French adventurer, had carried the Cross into the territory 
of the savage Hurons and had preached its gospel of peace 
and chanted its sacred anthems in forests which h^d there- 
tofore been more familiar with the cries of wild beasts 
and the war-whoop of the Indian. In that sign — of the 
Cross — a continent was conquered. 

Digressively, we may be permitted here to note the 



14 Niagara, 

fact that it is not a little remarkable that that religion 
whose gospel is love and peace should so generally make 
its conquests and be carried into new regions through the 
instrumentalities of a system whose law and gospel both 
are hatred and strife ; that the sword should be the pre- 
cursor of the Cross, and that the heavy ordnance of the 
artillerist should open the way for the divine ordinances of 
God. And although the French missionaries made no 
use of this last carnal weapon, still the soldier and the 
priest marched abreast, and ten of the former were demor- 
alised, and ten heathens slain, that the latter might make 
one slippery convert to the Cross. And now in all the wide 
empire which they once owned and occupied, not a single 
congregation of the dusky race, nor hardly a single indivi- 
dual Christian remains to bear witness to the heroic labor 
and ardent zeal of the Franciscan monk or Jesuit priest 
Nevertheless a good work was done and the good work 
goes on. The Church, which is the inheritor of the eternal 
promises, has enlarged her borders and strengthened her 
stakes; and, in the final glories of her millenial day, the 
dark beginnings of her militant career may be forgiven 
and forgotten. 

From Newfoundland to Virginia, the coasts and the is- 
lands of the re-discovered continent were explored by the 
Cabots in 1497, and were re-visited by the same explorers 
the following year. In 1501 occurred the Portuguese ex- 
pedition, under Gasper Cortoreal, the most notable feature 
of which was the fact that its leader, by capturing fifty In- 
dians whom he carried to Portugal and sold into slavery, 
committed a crime which, very logically, proved to be the 



History. 1 5 

foundation of the cruel hostility and treachery which, for 
so long a period, characterised the intercourse of the In- 
dian with the white man. In 1525 France sent out her 
first transatlantic expedition, under Verrezanna. He found 
the natives from Cape Fear River to the New England 
coast friendly and peaceful. But on reaching the coasts 
and islands near Newfoundland he encountered the jea- 
lousy and hostility which were the natural results of the 
outrages perpetrated by his Portuguese predecessor. In 
1534, Jacques Cartier, a shrewdy enterprising, and adven- 
turous sailor, made his first voyage accross the Atlantic, 
touching at Newfoundland, and exploring the coast to the 
west and south of it. Great interest has recently (1867) 
been manifested, we may remark parenthetically, in the 
voyage across the Atlantic of three yachts — the Fleetwing^ 
the He?trietta, and the Vista — in the remarkably quick 
time of fourteen days, and great credit is awarded to their 
successful navigators. Each of these vessels had a capa- 
city of more than 200 tons burden. The two vessels of 
Cartier, called ships by the historians of the period, were 
of only sixty tons burden. The time at which the latter 
and in which the former sailed makes their voyages 
remarkable. 

On the return of Cartier to France, so favorable was 
his report of the results of the expedition, that Francis 
First commissioned him, the year following, for another 
voyage, and in May, 1535, after impressive religious cere- 
monies and receiving the benediction of a bishop, he 
sailed with three vessels thoroughly equipped. The record 
of this second voyage of Cartier, by Lescarbot, contains 



1 6 Niagara. ' 

the first historical notice of the Cataract at Niagara. The 
navigator, in answer to his inquiries concerning the source 
of the St. Lawrence, " was told that, after ascending many 
leagues among rapids and waterfalls, he would reach a 
lake one hundred and forty or fifty leagues broad, at the 
western extremity of which the waters are wholesome and 
winters mild ; that a river emptied into it from the 
south, which had its source in the country of the Iro- 
quois ; that beyond the lake he would find a cataract and 
portage, then another lake about equal to the former 
which they had never explored.^' 

In 1603, a company of merchants in Rouen obtained 
the neccessary authority for a new expedition to the St. 
Lawrence, which they placed under the direction of 
Samuel Champlain, an accomplished mariner, and able,, 
discreet and resolute commander. On a map attached 
to his voyages, published in 1613, he indicated the posi- 
tion of the cataract, calling it merely a waterfall, (Saut 
d^eau)^ and describing it as being " so very high that many 
kinds of fish are stunned in its descent." It does not ap- 
pear by the record that he ever saw it. 

During the sixty years that elapsed between the estab- 
lishment of the French settlements by Champlain, and 
the expedition of La Salle and Hennepin, there can be 
little doubt that the great Fall was repeatedly visited by 
French traders and adventurers. In 1648, the Jesuit 
father, Ragueneau, in a letter to the Superior of the Mis- 
sion, at Paris, says, " north of the Eries is a great lake,, 
about two hundred leagues in circumference, called Erie, 
formed by the discharge of the mer-douce or Lake Huron,, 



History. 1 7 

and which falls into a third lake, called Ontario, over a 
cataract of frightful height." 

The first description of it, however, secured to us by 
the preservative power of type, is that of Father Hen- 
nepin, so well known to those conversant with our early 
history. He saw it for the first time in the winter of 
1678-9, and his exaggerated account of it is accompanied 
by a sketch which in its principal features is undoubtedly 
correct, though its perspective and proportions are 
quite otherwise. He says, '^ Betwixt the lakes Ontario 
and Erie there is a vast and prodigious cadence of water 
which falls down after a surprising and astonishing 
manner, insomuch that the universe does not afford its 
parallel. 'Tis true that Italy and Switzerland boast of 
some such things, but we may well say they are sorry 
patterns when compared with this of which we now speak. 
% % % % It [the river] is so rapid above the de- 
scent, that it violently hurries dowQ the wild beasts while 
endeavouring to pass it, * "^ "^ they not being able 
to withstand the force of its current, which inevitably 
casts them headlong above six hundred feet high. This 
wonderful downfall is composed of two great cross 
streams of water and two falls, with an isle sloping along 
the middle of it. The waters which fall from this horrible 
precipice do foam and boil after the most hideous manner 
imaginable, making an outrageous noise, more terrible 
than that of thunder ; for when the wind blows out of the 
south their dismal roaring may be heard more than fif- 
teen leagues off. 

" The river Niagara having thrown itself down this in- 



1 8 Niagara. 

credible precipice, continues its impetuous course for two 
leagues together to the great rock, above mentioned [in 
another chapter as lying at the foot of the mountain 
at Lewiston], with an inexpressible rapidity. ''^ ^ ^ 
From the great Fall unto this rock, which is to the west 
of the river, the two brinks of it are so prodigious high, 
that it would make one tremble to look steadily upon 
the water rolling along with a rapidity not to be ima- 
gined/' 

On his return from the west, in the summer of 1681, 
the Father informs us that he " spent half a day in con- 
sidering the wonders of that prodigious cascade." Re- 
ferring to the spray, he says : " The rebounding of these 
waters is so great, that a sort of cloud arises from the 
foam of it which is seen hanging over this abyss even at 
noon-day." Of the river, he says, ^' From the mouth of 
Lake Erie to the Falls are reckoned six leagues. ^^ * * 
The lands which lie on both sides of it to the east and 
west are all level from the Lake Erie to the great Fall." 
At the end of the six leagues " it meets with a small 
sloping island, about half a quarter of a league long and 
near three hundred feet broad, as well as one can guess 
by the eye. From the end then of this island it is that 
these two great falls of water, as also the third, throw 
themselves, after a most surprising manner, down into 
the dreadful gulph, six hundred feet and more in depth." 
On the Canada side, he says : ^' One may go down as far 
as the bottom of this terrible gulph. The author of this 
•discovery was down there, the more narrowly to observe 
the fall of these prodigious cascades. From hence we 



History, 1 9 

could discover a spot of ground which lay under the fall 
of water which is to the east [American Fall] big enough 
for four coaches to drive abreast without being wet ; but 
because the ground ^ * * ^ where the first fall 
empties itself into the gulph is very steep and almost per- 
pendicular, it is impossible for a man to get down on that 
side, into the place where the four coaches may go 
abreast, or to make his way through such a quantity of 
water as falls toward the gulph, so that it is very probable 
that to this dry place it is that the rattlesnakes retire, by 
certain passages which they find under ground.'^ 

Finding no Indians living at the Falls, he suggests a 
probable reason therefor : "I have often heard talk of 
the Cataracts of the Nile, which make people deaf that 
live near them. I know not if the Iroquois who formerly 
inhabited near this fall ^ * * ^ withdrew them- 
selves from its neighborhood lest they should likewise 
become deaf, or out of the continual fear they were in of 
the rattlesnakes, which are very common in this place. 
% * ^ ^ Be it as it will, these dangerous creatures 
are to be met with as far as the Lake Frontenac [Ontario], 
on the south side ; and it is reasonable to presume 
that the horrid noise of the Fall, and the fear of these 
poisonous serpents might oblige the savages to seek out 
a more commodious habitation.'' In the view of the 
Fails accompanying his description, a large rock is repre- 
sented as hanging on the edge of the Table rock, and 
dividing the water into two channels, the one on the 
north side being small and falling to the west. The rock 
and the small cascade are mentioned by Kalm, a Swedish 



20 Niagara. 

naturalist) who visited the Falls in 1750, as having dis- 
appeared a few years before that date. 



CHAPTER 11. 

HISTORY. 

1687 — Baron La Hontan — Description of the Fails — Beasts 
and fish drawn over them — Taken out by Indians — Their 
canoes precede the white man's skiff and yawl — 1721 — M. 
Charlevoix — Letter to Madame Maintenon — Number of 
Falls — Geological indications — Great projection of the 
rock — Cave of the Winds — Passing through it — Exhilarat- 
ing trip — Rainbows. 

EVEN more exaggerated than Father Hennepin's is 
the next account of the Falls, which has come 
down to us, and which was written by the Baron La 
Hontan, in the autumn of 1687. Fear of an attack from 
the Iroquois, the relentless enemies of the French, made 
his visit short and unsatisfactory. He says : " As for the 
water-fall of Niagara, 'tis seven or eight hundred feet 
high, and half a league wide. Towards the middle of it 
we descry an island, that leans towards the precipice, 
as if it were ready to fall." Concerning the beasts and 
fish drawn over the precipice, he says they " serve for 
food" for the Iroquois, who ^^ take 'em out of the water 
with their canoes ;" and also that " between the surface of 
the water, that shelves off prodigiously, and the foot of 



History, 2 1 

the precipice, three men may cross in abreast, without 
further damage than a sprinkUng of some few drops of 
water/^ Father Hennepin, it will be remembered, makes 
this space broad enough for four coaches, instead of three 
men. 

From the Baron's declaration as to the manner in which 
the Indians captured the game which went over the Falls, 
it would seem that on the ferry at their foot, as in all 
others in this region, the bark canoe of the Indian was 
the precursor of the white man's skiff and yawl. And the 
timid traveller of the present day, who hesitates about 
crossing in this latter craft, will probably pronounce the 
Indian quite foolhardy for venturing on those turbulent 
waters in his light canoe, whereas, in skilful hands, it is 
peculiarly fitted for such navigation. 

A more correct estimate of the Cataract than either of 
the preceding, is that of M. Charlevoix, sent to Madame 
Maintenon, in 1721. After referring to the inaccurate 
accounts of Hennepin and La Hontan, he says : " For my 
own part, after having examined it on all sides, where it 
could be viewed to the greatest advantage, I am inclined 
to think we cannot allow it [the height] less than one 
hundred and forty or fifty feet.'' As to its figure, "it is 
in the shape of a horse-shoe, and it is about four hundred 
paces in circumference. It is divided in two exactly in 
the centre by a very narrow island, half a quarter of a 
league long." In relation to the noise of the falling water, 
he says : '^ You can scarce hear it at M. de Joncaire's 
[Fort Schlosser], and what you hear in this place [Lewis- 
ton] may possibly be that of the whirlpools, caused by 



2 2 Niagara. 

the rocks which fill up the bed of the river as far as 
this.'^ 

Neither the Baron La Hontan nor M. Charlevoix 
speak of the nuinber of water-falls. But Father Henne- 
pin, it will be remembered, mentions three, two of which 
were to the south and west of Goat Island. And the 
Rev. Abbe Picquet, who visited the place in 1751, seventy 
years after Father Hennepin, says : [Documentary His- 
tory, I., p. 283] ''This Cascade is as prodigious by its 
height and the quantity of water which falls there, as by 
the variety of its falls, which are to the number of six 
principal ones divided by a small island, leaving three 
to the north and three to the south. They produce 
of themselves a singular symmetry and wonderful 
effect.'^ 

The geological indications are that Goat Island once 
embraced all the small islands lying near it, and also that 
it covered the whole of the rocky bar which stretches up 
stream some hundred and fifty rods above the head of the 
present island At that period, from the depressions now 
visible in the rocky bed of the river, it would seem pro- 
bable that the water cut channels through the modern drift 
corresponding with these depressions. In that case there 
would then have been a third fall in the American chan- 
nel, north of Goat Island, lying between Luna Island and 
a small island then lying just south of the Little Horseshoe, 
and stretching up towards Chapin's Island. On the south 
side of Goat Island, there would have been a fall between 
its southern shore and an island near to and beyond the 
stone tower now standing in the channel. 



History, 23 

It is evident from the descriptions of both Father Hen- 
nepin and the Baron La Hontan, that the upper stratum 
of rock over which the water falls, must have projected 
beyond the face of the rock below much further than it 
now does. This supposition is confirmed by the fact, 
that the underlying shale here curves upward higher than 
at any other point above the whirlpool. The large 
masses of fallen rock lying at the foot of the American 
Fall, are evidence of the same fact. Travelers still go be- 
hind the sheet on the Canada side, and into and through 
the Cave of the Winds, on the American side. But they 
do not expect to keep dry in so doing, nor to sun them- 
selves on the rocks below, like the rattlesnakes of former 
days. Nevertheless, there is no more exciting nor exhil- 
arating excursion to be made at the Falls than that 
through the Cave of the Winds. It is a rich experience, 
both mental and physical. 

Nowhere else are the prismatic hues exhibited in such 
wonderful variety, nor in such surpassing brilliancy and 
beauty. And although a rainbow is not a spraybow, it 
may be admitted that a spraybow is a rainbow, formed of 
drops of water, large or small. So here rainbow dust 
and shattered rainbows are scattered around ; rainbow 
bars and arches, horizontal and perpendicular, are flash- 
ing and forming, breaking and re-forming, dancing and 
floating around and above the visitor in the most fantastic 
and delightful confusion of form and effect. And if his 
-fancy prompts him, he may arrange himself as a portrait, 
at half or full length, in an annular bow. The enamored 
Strephon may literally place his charming Delia in a 



24 Niagara. 

living, sparkling rainbow-frame, flecked all over with 
diamonds and pearls ; albeit the uncouth bathing dress 
would be in striking contrast with the fairy-like texture 
and beauty of the setting. 

The trip furnishes the douche^ the shower, the sitz and 
every other kind of bath except the plunge. The water 
<ioes enough of this to satisfy perfectly the most aquatic 
temperament. As a lung expander, it is unrivaled. And 
no soporific or anodyne can produce more delightful sen- 
sations or emotions than the traveler experiences when 
the ^'reaction" occurs. He goes to sleep with a rainbow 
in his head, and one around it, and the dreamy sound of 
many waters is transformed into the music of the spheres. 

When an oriental parlor, with hammocks and lounges 
for repose, is added to the present guide and dress-house, 
this trip will form one of the most attractive features of 
the place. 



/ CHAPTER HI. 

HISTORY. 

The name Niagara — Baron La Hontan — Beautiful language 
of the Hurons — Jesuit Missionaries reach Niagara in 1626 
— Oldest of Indian names — Splendid territory to which it 
belonged — Description of the river — Immense drainage. 

ALL reference to the nameoi this locaHty has been pur- 
posely deferred until we should have become ac- 
quainted with its physical characteristies. There is in 



History, 25 

some words a mystic power which it is not easy to analyze 
or define, but which fascinates the ear even of those who 
do not understand their meaning. The very sound of 
them as they are enunciated by the human voice, touches 
a chord to which every spirit instinctively responds. So 
it is with the name of the great Cataract. No one can 
hear it correctly pronounced without being charmed with 
its rhythmical beauty, nor without feeling confident of its 
poetical aptness and significance in its original dialect. 

And although we have no means of determining the 
€on*ectness, or otherwise, of any of the fanciful or po- 
etical interpretations which have been given of the word, 
still we cannot doubt that it must have had a peculiar 
force and justness with those who first applied it. Baron 
La Hontan, who spent several years among the Indians, 
noticed the remarkable fact concerning their language 
that it had no labials. " Nevertheless," he says, '' the 
language of the Hurons appears very beautiful, and the 
sound of it perfectly charming, although, in speaking it, 
they never close their lips." 

The most voluminous, and among the earliest existing, 
records connected with the River St. Lawrence, and the 
great lakes which it drains, are the well-known " Relations 
of the Jesuits," so called, comprising a yearly account ot 
the labors of the Missionary Fathers sent out by the 
College at Paris to christianise the Indians. In 161 5, 
they estabUshed their Mission at Quebec, and from thence 
extended their operations westward. In 1626, they 
reached the large and powerful tribe of Indians which oc- 
cupied the splendid domain which may be described with 

C 



26 . Niagara, 

proximate accuracy, as bounded by a line commencing 
at a point on the southerly shore of Lake Ontario, about 
thirty miles west of the mouth of the Gennesee river^ 
and running thence parallel to that river to a point due 
west from Avon ; thence nearly due west to Buffalo ;. 
thence along the north shore of Lake Erie to the Detroit 
river ; thence up that river to a point directly west from 
the west end of Lake Ontario ; thence east to that lake,, 
and finally along the southern shore of it to the place of 
beginning. 

The oldest and most notable name in all this territory 
is Niagara, as would naturally be inferred, when we con- 
sider the varied and wonderful features of the mighty river 
which flows across it. Taking a hurried leave of Lake 
Erie with a joyous bound, its clear waters gradually 
spread themselves out in a broad, bright channel, over a 
plain, open country, having a slight declivity, just suffi- 
cient to make a gentle current, thereby adding the living 
beauty and force of motion to the broad expanse of a lake- 
like surface, that surface itself diversified and relieved 
by the pleasant islands, large and small, which are scat- 
tered over it. Eddying into every quiet bay ; coquetting 
with every salient angle \ moving to the melody of its own 
murmurs, serenely and pleasantly it flows on. 

But after a time this holiday journey is interrupted.. 
A fearful change takes place. The careless waters are 
hurried down a long and sharp descent, over the roughs 
denuded, boulder-studded bed-rock of the stream. Break- 
ing and bounding ; surging and resurging ; flashing and 
foaming ; rushing fiercely upon some huge boulder, re- 



History. 2 7 

coiling an instant, then madly leaping entirely over it ; 
rushing on to others huger still, then breaking wildly 
around them and hurrying onward until the troubled 
waters, culminating in their sublimes t aspect, are plunged 
sheer downward in the grandest cataract on the globe. 

And now the scene and the effect it produces on the 
beholder both change. The rapids are beautiful ; the 
falls are grand ; those are exhilarating, these are inspiring ; 
those we can look upon standing or walking ; these we 
gaze upon wrapt and still ; with those our thoughts go 
out in shout and song ; with these in aspiration and praise ; 
those are noisy, turbulent, fickle ; these are calm, resist- 
less, inexorable. 

After the water has made the final plunge over the pre- 
cipice the cataract acquires its most impressive and en- 
chanting characteristics )- the majestic monotone, the 
bow, the cloud, which is its vail by night, its crowning 
glory and beauty by day. The combinations of grandeur 
and beauty have reached their climax — the fall, the 
foam, the voice, the spray, the incense, the bow. Silence 
is golden here. Speech were powerless even were it per- 
tinent. 

The chasm of the river from the Falls to Lewiston has 
been sufiiciently described, as will be seen in the sequel^, 
in treating of the geology of the district. From Lewiston 
to Lake Ontraio, seven miles, the waters of the river flow 
on through an elevated and fertile plain, in a strong, 
calm, majestic current, smiling with dimples and reversed 
in occasional eddies, but neither broken by rapids nor 
impeded by islands. Finally it is lost in the lake after 



28 Niagara. 

passing an immense bar formed by the enormous mass of 
sedimentary matter carried down by its own current. 
The landscape, as seen from the top of the terrace above 
Lewiston, is one of the finest and most extensive which can 
be found on the continent, of its pecuHar character, all its 
features being such only as appertain to a broad, cham- 
paign country. 

The visitor at the Niagara, as he looks at the Falls, will 
have a profounder appreciation of their magnitude by 
considering that it requires the water drainage of half a 
continent to sustain them, and that the remoter springs, 
w^hich send to them their constant tribute, are more than 
two thousand miles distant. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HISTORY. 

Niagara a tribal name — Other names given to the tribe, and 
why — Father Lalement's letter — Niagaras a superior race 
— Indian language — Full sound of vowels — Corrupt abbre- 
viations — True pronunciation — End of French rule in Ame- 
rica — United States and Great Britain now owners of Nia- 
gara. 

THE name Niagara has been so thoroughly identified 
with the River and the Falls that the question, 
.whether it was also the name of an Indian nation or tribe 
has been quite neglected. It is proposed now to give 
the subject some consideration, assuming, at once, its af- 



History, 29 

firmative to be true. This, it is believed, we shall be 
justified in doing by every principle of analogy and pro- 
bability. We know that it was a general practice of the 
Indians who occupied this region of country, so abound- 
ing in lakes and rivers, to give the name of the nation 
or tribe to^ or to name them from^ some of the most pro- 
minent bodies and courses of water found in their terri- 
tory. Such was the fact with the Senecas, Cayugas. 
Oneidas, Onondagas, and Hurons, the tribal name of 
each being perpetuated in both a lake and river. The 
warrior tribe of the Six Nations, having no noted lake 
within their boundaries, left a perpetual memorial of 
themselves in a name as beautiful as the stream which 
bears it, and every traveler along the Mohawk is, by it, 
reminded of the brave nation which never swerved in its 
fidelity to the Anglo-Saxons. 

The unwarlike Eries too, though finally exterminated 
by their more powerful and aggressive neighbors, the Iro- 
quois, are still remembered in the lake which bears their 
name. 

With the Niagaras the river and the cataract were the 
most notable and impressive features of their territory. 
Their principal village bore the same name ; and when we 
recall the proverbial vanity of the race, we can hardly 
doubt that this must also have been their tribal name. 
That it should have been perpetuated in reference to the 
village, the river and the falls, and that the use of it, in 
reference to the tribe, should have lapsed, can be readily 
understood when we recollect that they had two substi- 
tutes for the latter. One of these substitutes is explained 



30 Niagara. 

at page 70 of the ^'Relations" of 1641, in a passage 
which the writer translates as follows : ^^ Our Hurons 
call the Neuter Nation Attouanderonks^ as though they 
would say a people of a little different language : for as to 
those nations who speak a language of which they under- 
stand nothing, they call them Attouankes, whatever nation 
they be may, or as though they spoke of strangers. They 
of the Neuter Nation in turn and for the same reason call 
our Hurons Attouaiidaronksy 

Thus it would seem that this was a mere title of con- 
venience used to indicate a certain fact, namely, a differ- 
ence of language. The other substitute by which the na- 
tion was best known among their white brethren will be 
understood by an extract from a letter contained in the 
same ^-Relation," and written from St. Mary's Mission on 
the river Severn, by Father Lalement. In it he gives an 
account of a journey made by the Fathers Jean deBrebeuf 
and Joseph Marie Chaumont to the country of the iV^^^/^* 
Nation^ as the Niagaras were called by the Hurons on 
the north and the Iroquois on the south of them, learn- 
ing it, as they did, from the French. The letter says : 
^' Our French, who first discovered this people, named 
them the Neuter Nation, and not without reason, for their 
country being the ordinary passage by land, between 
some of the Iroquois nations and the Hurons, who are 
sworn enemies, they remained at peace with both ; so that 
in times past, the Hurons and the Iroquois meeting in the 
same wigwam or village of that nation, were both in safety 
while they remained. There are some things in which 
they differ from our Hurons. They are larger, stronger. 



History, 31 

and better formed. They also entertain a great affection 
for the dead. ^ "' ^ '^ '^^ The Sonontonheronons 
(Senecas), one of the Iroquois nations the nearest to and 
most dreaded by the Hurons, are not more than a day's 
journey distant from the easternmost village of the Neuter 
Nation, named Onguiaahra [Niagara], of the same name 
as the river." 

It would seem then that this name. Neuter Nation, as 
applied to this tribe, was an appellation used merely to 
indicate a peculiarity of its location, or of the relation in 
which it stood to the hostile tribes living to the north and 
south of it. The Indians were not philologists, and seem 
not to have objected to the names applied to them, nor 
to have criticised the erroneous pronunciation of words 
of their own dialects. 

In the extract given above, the name of our river first 
appears in type. Its orthography will be noted as pe- 
culiar. It is one of forty different ways of spelling the 
name, thirty-nine of which are given in the index volume 
of the Colonial History of New York, and the fortieth, 
the most pertinent to our present purpose, in Drake's 
" Book of the Indians,'' seventh edition. Prefixed to 
'' Book First " is a " Table of the principal Tribes," 
in which we find the following : 

" NiCARiAGAS, once about Michilimakinak \ joined the 
the Iroquois in 1723." 

M. Charlevoix, in 1642, apparently using the facts 
stated in Lalement's letter of the preceding year, and 
quoting also a portion of its language, says : " A people 
larger, stronger, and better formed than any other savages, 



32 Niagara. 

and who lived south of the Huron Country, were visited 
by the Jesuits, who preached to them the Kingdom of 
God. They were called the Neuter Nation, because they 
took no part in the wars which desolated the country. 
But in the end they could not themselves escape entire 
destruction. To avoid the fury of the Iroquois, they 
finally joined them against the Hurons, but gained nothing 
by the union." At a later date, he says, they were de- 
stroyed about the year 1643. ^^^ we have before ob- 
served that Father Raugeneau states, that their destruc- 
tion occurred in 165 1. The tribe mentioned by Drake 
was probably a remnant who escaped in the final over- 
throw of their nation in this last-named year, and sought 
refuge atMacinaw, among the Hurons, who had previously 
retreated to this almost inaccessible locality, in order, also, 
to escape from the all-conquering Iroquois. After the 
lapse of nearly three quarters of a century, when the 
hostility of the latter had subsided, and they had them- 
selves been weakened and subdued by the whites, the 
wretched remnant of the Niagaras, with that strong love 
of home so characteristic of the Indian, returned to their 
native hunting grounds, where they remained for a few 
years, and then joined their conquerors in that mournful 
procession of their race which has been so constantly 
forced to the west by their white brotheis. 

If there were a Nemesis for nations as well as for indi- 
viduals, it would be fearful to contemplate the time when 
the Anglo-Saxon should be called on to pay the " long 
arrears '' of the Indians' "bloody debt." Returning to the 
orthography of our name, we find on Sanson's map of 



History. 33 

Canada, published in Paris in 1657, that it is shortened 
into " Ongiara,'^ and on Coronelli's map of the same re- 
gion, published in Paris in 1688, it crystalizes into Nia- 
gara. There is also on this map a village located on or 
near the site of Buffalo, designated as follows : " Kah- 
kou-a-go-gah, a destroyed natio?tJ' This name bears a closer 
resemblance to the true one than several of the forty to 
which we have just referred, and if it be reduced to Kah- 
kwa it would still be only a corrupt abbreviation of Nia- 
gara. 

More than fifty years ago, while leisurely traveling 
through western New York, the writer well remembers 
how his youthful ears were charmed with the flowing ca- 
dences of the better class of Indians as they i?ito7ied vdiXhtT 
than spake the beautiful names which their ancestors had 
given to different localities. Every vowel was fully 
sounded. 

0-N-E-I-D-A was then Oh - ne - i - dah ; C-A-Y-U-G-A 
was Kah - yu - gah ; G-E-N-E-S-E-E was Gen - e - se - e ; 
C-A-N-A-N-D-A-I-G-U-A was Kan - nan - dar - quah, and 
N-I-A-G-A-R-A was Ni - ah - gah - rah. 

The present corrupt and abbreviated pronunciation of 
these names is well known. A people whose Elysium 
would seem to be imperfect if lacking a race-course ; 
many of whose youthful scions and frost-crowned sires be- 
lieve that the poetry of motion is expressed by the mystic 
characters 2' iY\ and culminates in the fact which they 
represent ; who, while usurping the prerogative of Jove^ 
and compelling the electric current to do their errands, 
would " stir its metal with their steel/' if it iijere metal 



34 Niagara, 

and amenable to such pointed persuasion — auch a people 
is not likely to respect the far niente^ either in name or 
•speech, of the more leisurely and poetic savage. 

In regard to the name which commemorates our great 
nation, river, and cataract, the pronunciation nearest to 
the original which it may be possible to perpetuate is Ni- 
ag-a-rah ; the accent on the second syllable, the vowel in 
the first pronounced as in the word nigh ; the a in the 
third and fourth syllables but slightly abbreviated from 
the long a in far, and that in the second syllable but 
slightly aspirated. 



CHAPTER V. 

HISTORY. 

The lower Niagara — La Salle's first entrance to it — First 
Defensive work — Fort Niagara — Fort Mississauga — 
Niagara Village — Lewiston — Portage around the Falls — 
First railroad in the United States — Fort Schlosser — 
Old orchard — Queenston — Butler — Ambuscade at DeviFs 
Hole — Cayuga ^Creek — The Griffin, first vessel — Navy Is- 
land — Niagara frontier. 

FROM the earliest advent of the French missionaries 
and voyageurs to the Lake region, the banks of the 
lower Niagara were a favorite and favored locality. Very 
early they were cleared of the grand forest which covered 
them and the genial, fertile, and easily-worked soil, en- 
riched by the deep vegetable mould that had been accu- 



I 

M 



History. 35 

mulating upon it for centuries, produced in lavish abun- 
dance the wheat, maize, garden vegetables and fruits, large 
and small, which are so palatable and healthful, not only to 
the hardy pioneer but also to the effeminate cosmopolitan. 
" On the 6th day of December, 1678,'' says Marshall^ 
in his admirable Historical Sketches, " La Salle, in 
his brigantine of ten tons, doubled the point where Fort 
Niagara now stands, and anchored in the sheltered waters 
of the river. The prosecution of his bold enterprise at 
that inclement season, involving the exploration of a vast 
and unknown country, in vessels built on the way, indi- 
cates the indomitable energy and self-reliance of the intre- 
pid discoverer. His crew consisted of sixteen persons, 
under the immediate command of the Sieur de la Motte. 
^ Te Deuni laudamus ^ chanted the grateful Franciscans 
as they entered the noble river. The strains of that an- 
cient hymn of the Church, as they rose from the deck of 
the adventurous bark, and echoed from shore and forest, 
must have startled the watchful Senecas with the unusual 
sound, as they gazed upon their strange visitors. Never 
before had white men, so far as history tells us, a.scended 
the river. '^ 

La Salle rested here for a time, but no defensive work 
was constructed until 1687, when the Marquis De Non- 
ville, returning from his famous expedition against the Se- 
necas, fortified it, after the fashion of the time, with pali- 
sades and ditches. The small garrison of one hundred 
men which he left, were obliged to abandon it the follow- 
ing season, after partially destroying it. By consent of 
the Iroquois it was reconstructed in stone in 1725-6. 



36 Niagara, 



o 



Opposite to Fort Niagara, on the Canadian side, are Fort 
Mississauga and the Village of Niagara. The latter, Mar- 
shall says, " is an older settlement than any on the eastern 
side of the river, and boasted a weekly newspaper as early 
as 1795. In 1792, it became the residence of the Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of Canada, and in the autumn of that 
year, the first session of the Parliament of the Upper Pro- 
vince was held there/' It is a charming location, and 
there are in the large village quite a number of substantial 
and tasteful mansions. Several Americans have pur- 
chased dwellings in the place for summer occupation. A 
mile above was Fort George, now a ruin. 

Seven miles above the mouth of the river, and at the 
head of its navigation, nestled at the foot of the mountain, 
formerly so called, is Lewiston, so named in 1805 in hon- 
or of Governor Lewis, of New York. Here, in 1678, La 
Salle ^^constructed a cabin of palisades to serve as a ma- 
gazine or storehouse.^' And this was the commencement 
of the portage to the river above the Falls, which passed 
over nearly the same route as the present road to Lewis - 
ton, and what is still called the Portage Road. Here, too, 
the first railway in the United States was constructed, 
True, it was built of wood, and was called a tramway. But 
a car was run upon it to transport goods up and down the 
mountain. The motion of the car was regulated by a 
windlass, and it was supported on runners instead of 
wheels. This was a very good arrangement for getting 
freight down the hill, but not so good for getting it up. 
But the wages of labor were low in every sense, since 
many of the Indians, demoralized by the use of those two 



History. 37 

most pestilent drugs, rum and tobacco, would do a day's 
work for a pint of the former and a plug of the latter. 

The upper terminus of this portage was for many years 
merely an open landing place for canoes and boats. In 
1750 the French constructed a strong stockade-work on 
the bank of the river above their barracks and store 
houses. This they called Fort du Portage. It was burnt 
in 1759, by Chabert Joncaire, who was in command of it 
when the British commenced the formidable and fatal 
campaign of that year against the French. After Fort 
Niagara was surrendered to Sir William Johnson, Joncaire 
retired with his small garrison to the station on Chippawa 
Creek. 

In less than two years the work was rebuilt in a much 
more substantial manner by Captain Joseph Schlosser, a 
German who served in _ the British army in that cam- 
paign. It had the outline of a tolerably regular fortifica- 
tion, with rude bastions and connecting curtains, sur- 
rounded by a somewhat formidable ditch. The interior 
plateau was a little elevated and surrounded by an earth 
embankment piled against the inner side of the pahsades, 
over which its defenders could fire with great efiect. 

When the writer first saw its remains, the outlines and 
ditches of the work were quite distinct. Only some 
slight inequalities in the surface now indicate its site. 
Captain Schlosser was afterwards promoted to the rank 
of Colonel and died in the Fort. An oak slab, on which 
his name was cut, was standing at his grave just above 
the Fort as late as the year 1808. 
. Some sixtv rods below, is still standing what is believed 



38 Niagara. 

to be the first civilized chimney built in this part of the 
country. It is a large and most substantial stone struc- 
ture, around which the French built their barracks. 
These were burnt by Joncaire on his retreat. A large 
dwelHng house was built to it by the EngUsh, which 
afforded shelter for many different occupants until it was 
burnt in 18 13. Its last occupant, before it was destroyed^ 
kept it as a tavern, and it became a favorite place for 
festive and holiday gatherings. What hath been may be. 
When the Falls shall have receded two miles, the brides 
and grooms of that age will find their Cataract House 
near the site of old Fort Schlosser. 

To the west of this old stone chimney stand the few 
surviving trees of the first apple orchard set out in this 
region. As early as 1796, it is described as being a 
''well fenced orchard, containing 1200 trees." Not fifty 
are now standing. 

Across the river from^Lewiston is Queenston, so named 
in honor of Queen Charlotte. The battle which bears 
its name, was fought on the 13th of October, 18 13, be- 
tween the American and British armies. The former 
crossed the river, made the attack, and carried the 
heights. The commander of the British forces. General 
Brock, and one of his aids. Colonel McDonald, were 
killed. The British were reinforced, and the American 
militia refusing to cross over to aid the Americans, the 
latter were obliged to return across the river, leaving 
quite a number of prisoners in the hands of the enemy. 
Some years afterward, the Colonial Parliament caused a 
fine monument to be erected on the heights to the mem- 



History, 39 

ory of General Brock. It presents a conspicuous and 
imposing appearance from the terrace below. 

Two miles and a quarter above Lewiston, as we have 
noted in Part Second, is the Devil's Hole, famous as the 
scene of a short supplementary campaign, made against 
the English, by the Seneca Indians, in 1763. Though 
doubtless instigated by French traders, yet it was a purely 
Indian enterprise, gotten up among themselves, and com- 
manded by Farmer's Brother, one of the Seneca chiefs, 
who was a fighter as well as an orator. It was one of 
the best planned and most successfully executed militar}^ 
stratagems ever recorded. It was calculated upon the 
nicest balancing of facts and probabilities, and executed 
with unrivaled thoroughness and celerity. 

It was known to the Indians that the English were in 
the habit, almost daily, of sending supply trains, under 
escort, from Fort Niagara to Fort Schlosser. After unload- 
ing at the latter post, they returned to the former. They 
knew also that there was a smaller supporting force of 
one or two companies at Lewiston, which could join the 
escort from Fort Niagara, in case of an extra valuable 
train. They k?tew too that the whole force at both places 
was not large enough to furnish an escort of more than 
four hundred men. They kneuf that the narrow pass at 
the Devil's Hole was the best point to place the ambus- 
cade. They knew that when the train went up they could 
see whether its escort was large or small, and so they 
would know whether they should concentrate their force 
to attack the larger escort, or divide it and attack the 
train and small escort first and the relieving force after- 



40 Niagara, 

ward. They coitjedured that the train would have a small 
escort ; but if it should have a large one, so much the 
better, as there would be a larger number in a small space 
for their balls to riddle. They conjectured that if the 
escort were small, the firing on the first attack would be 
heard by the soldiers at Lewiston, and that they would 
hurry to the relief of their comrades, not dreaming of 
danger before they should reach them. 

The fatal result demonstrated the correctness of their 
reasoning. They made a double ambuscade : one for the 
train and escort ; the other for the relieving force, and 
they destroyed both, only three of the first escaping and 
eight of the latter. The event occurred on the 14th of 
September, 1763. We say nothing of its morality. We 
speak only of its strategy. John Stedman commanded 
the supply train. At the first fire of the Indians, seeing 
the fatal snare, he wheeled his horse at once, and spurring 
him through a gauntlet of bullets, reached Schlosser in 
safety. A wounded soldier concealed himself in the 
bushes, and the drummer-boy lodged in a tree as he fell 
<lown the bank. Eight of the relieving force escaped to 
Fort Niagara to tell the story of their defeat. 

Three miles above Schlosser is Cayuga Creek, near 
the mouth of which La Salle built the Griffin^ a vessel 
of sixty tons burden, the first civilized craft that floated 
on the upper lakes, and the pioneer of an inland com- 
merce of unrivaled growth and value. She reached 
Green Bay safely, but on her return voyage foundered 
with all on board in Lake Huron. 

The French also built some small vessels on Navy 



History, 41 

Island, (the French name, Isle la Marine, given to the 
island having been thus translated by the English.) The 
reinforcements sent from Venango for the French, during 
the siege of Fort Niagara by Sir AVilliam Johnson, in 
1759, were landed on this island. To the east of it there 
is a large deep basin, formed at the foot of the channel, 
between Grand and Buckhom islands. The upper part 
of this channel being narrow, the basin appears like a 
bay. In this bay the French burnt and sunk the two 
vessels, as is supposed, which brought down the Venango 
reinforcements ; hence the name " Burnt Ship Bay." The 
writer has seen the ribs and timbers of these vessels be- 
neath the water, and caught many fine perch which had 
their haunts near them. 

The Niagara frontier was the theatre of great activity 
during the war of 181 2, the particulars of which we need 
not record again, as they are already matters of familiar 
history. Let it suffice to say, that the contest ended tri- 
umphantly for both parties ; for England, in that she 
yielded nothing we asked of her ; and for the United 
States, in that they won so many glorious victories by 
land and sea. Every good citizen on both sides of the 
line must earnestly hope that there never may be a recur- 
rence of such scenes. 

The French rule in North America was finally termi- 
nated in 1763. It virtually ceased soon after the capture 
of Quebec by General Wolf, in 1759, and the vast pos- 
sessions which they had been the first to explore and 
partially to civilize, were transferred to their English 



42 Niagara. 

neighbors. England and America are now the joint 
owners of Niagara. 

We thus conclude what may be called its early history. 
Some other historical facts and incidents will be found in 
the sequel, Parts Second and Third. 



PART SECOND. 



CHAPTER VI. 

GEOLOGY. 

America the old world — Geologically recent origin of the 
Falls — Evidence thereof — Captain William's surveys for 
ship canal — Former extent of Lake Michigan — Its outlet 
into Illinois River — The Niagara Barrier — How broken 
through — Niagara born. 

IF Professor Agassiz and Elie De Beaumont are cor- 
rect in their geological reading, America is the old 
world rather than the new, and the northern portion of it, 
stretching west from Eastern Canada to the Rocky 
Mountains, was the first to be lifted into the genial light 
of the sun. And Professor Lyell has recourse to the vast 
stellar spaces for a standard by which to estimate " the 
interval of time which divides the human epoch from the 
origin of the corralline limestone, over which the Niagara 
is precipitated at the Falls." " The Alps, the Pyrenees, 
the Himalayas," he continues, "have not only begun to 
«xist as lofty mountain chains, but the solid materials of 
which they are composed have been slowly elaborated be- 
neath the sea within the stupendous interval of ages here 
alluded to." 

A little more than twenty years ago, Professor Agassiz 
made a tour to the Upper Lakes with a class of students 



44 Niagara, 

for the purpose of giving them practical lessons in geology 
and other branches of natural science. The day was 
devoted to out-door examinations of different localities^ 
and in the evening was given a familiar lecture expository 
of the day's work. One of the points thus examined was 
Niagara, and it was the writer's good fortune to be able 
to accept an invitation to listen to the instructive lecture 
which followed the examination. 

Professor Agassiz concurs with other geologists in the 
opinion that the Falls were once at Lewiston, and one of 
the most interesting portions of the lecture was his ani- 
mated description of the retrocession of the Falls, traced 
step by step back to their present position. 

From this oral exposition, from other high geological 
authorities, and from personal observation extending 
through a quarter pf a century, the writer has derived the 
facts herein presented. 

There can be no doubt that at a comparatively recent * 
geological period the Falls of Niagara had no existence. 
The scope and limits of a work like this will not admit of 
the full exposition of this postulate which the writer hopes 
hereafter to give. For the present it may suffice to men- 
tion two facts which are conclusive on this point 

Dr. Houghton, geologist of the State of Michigan^ 
states in his report that the elevation of Lake 
Michigan above tide water is 578 feet. That of Lake 
Erie, as shown by the surveys of the Erie Canal, is 568 
feet, the difference of level between the two being ten 
feet. The fall or descent in the Niagara River from Lake 
Erie to Gill Creek, a few rods above the site of old Fort 



Geology, 45 

Schlosser, is twenty feet. Hence we learn that the surface 
of the water in Lake Michigan is thirty feet higher than 
that of the Niagara River near the mouth of Gill Creek. 
If, therefore, we find anywhere below the Falls a barrier 
drawn across this river that is more than thirty feet high , 
its water would thereby be set back to Lake Michigan. 
A moderate elevation above this thirty feet would serve 
as a safe shore-line for still water. 

The existence of this barrier has been demonstrated. 
In the year 1835, by direction of the War Department, 
Captain W. G. Williams, of the United States Topogra- 
phical Engineers, surveyed three routes for a canal around 
Niagara Falls. The first of these routes was run from the 
river nearly in a straight line to the head of Bloody Run 
and thence a portion of the way over the terrace laid bare 
by the rapid subsidence of the water after the barrier had 
been broken through. The second route commencing at 
the same point with the first — the old Schlosser Store- 
house just above Gill Creek — was run up the valley of 
the creek, through the ridge above Lewiston at a slight 
depression in the general line of the hill, and thence to 
Lake Ontario by two different routes. The highest point 
in the ridge was found to be sixty feet above the surface 
of the water in the river at the starting point. Here then 
is found the requisite barrier, a dam thirty feet higher than 
the water in Lake Michigan and having a base, as will be 
seen by reference to the map, of two and a half miles in 
breadth. This was its breadth at the time of the survey. 
But a careful observance of the topography of the banks 
on both sides of the river will show that it must originally 



46 Niagara, 

have been not less than twice that breadth, and that the 
depressions now existing are the results of the denudation 
caused by the removal of the barrier. The profile given 
on the map of a portion of line No. 2, of Capt. Wihiams' 
survey, is reduced from one of the maps accompanying 
his report. This profile passes through the Lewiston 
ridge about one mile east of the site of old Fort Grey. 

While this barrier was unbroken Lake Erie as extended 
would have covered all land that was not twenty-six feet 
higher than the present level of the river at old Schlosser 
landing, since the water there is sixteen feet below the 
level of Lake Erie. It is not difficult to trace this barrier 
on a good map. From old Fort Grey it stretches east- 
ward a short distance past Batavia, and then turns to the 
south through Wyoming into Cattaraugus County. In 
the latter county it forms the summit level of the Genesee 
Valley Canal. This summit is a swamp sixteen hundred 
and twenty-three feet above tide water, and the water runs 
from it northerly through the Genesee River into the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence, and southerly, through the Alleghany, 
into the Gulf of Mexico, while within a short distance 
rises Cattaraugus Creek which flows west into Lake Erie^ 

The gradual rise of the Niagara barrier as it extends to 
the east was demonstrated by the surveys of Captain 
Williams. By the Gill Creek line to Lewiston he found 
its elevation above the river, as has been stated, sixty 
feet. By the Cayuga Creek line to Pekin, it was sixty- 
four feet, and by the Tonewanda Creek line to Lockport, 
it was eighty-four feet, as is also shown by the surveys of 
the Erie Canal. 



Geology. 47 

To the west it extends from Brock^s Monument to the 
ridge which bounds the easterly side of the valley of 
the Chippawa Creek, and thence around the head of 
Lake Ontario into the Simcoe Hills. 

At that period all the islands in the Niagara River 
valley were submerged. The lower sections of the val- 
leys of the Chippawa, Ca5mga, Tonnewanda and Buffalo 
Creeks were also submerged. The site of Buffalo was, 
probably, a small island, and many other similar islands 
were scattered over the broad expanse of water. 

And this brings us to our second cardinal fact. Lake 
Michigan, having absorbed or spread over all the vast 
water-links in the great chain between Superior and On- 
tario, was the most stupendous body of fresh water on the 
globe. Its drainage was to the south through the valleys 
of the Des Plaines, Kankakee, Illinois and Mississippi 
Rivers, into the Gulf of Mexico. The evidence of this 
fact is abundant. The survey of the Illinois Central Rail- 
road shows that the surface of Lake Michigan is three 
hundred feet above the line of low water in the Ohio 
River at Cairo, where it joins the Mississippi. It also 
shows that the low water-line of the Kankakee, where the 
rail-road crosses it, is eleven feet above the surface of the 
lake. This river, which forms the north-eastern branch 
of the Illinois, rises in the State of Indiana, near South 
Bend, two miles from the St. Joseph. From its very 
commencement at its head-springs it is a shallow channel 
in the middle of a swamp, — called on the maps the 
^^ Kankakee Pond," — nearly a hundred miles long, and 
from two to five miles wide. On its north side, in Porter 



48 Niagara. 

County, is a broad cove, with a small stream in the midst 
of it, which reaches up due north to within a stone's 
throw of the south branch of the East Calumic river, 
which empties into the south-west corner of Lake Michi- 
gan. 

More than thirty years ago, while traveling by stage 
from Logansport, Indiana, to Chicago, the writer was told 
by a fellow-passenger that it was not an unusual thing, on 
the occurrence of a strong north wind during the spring 
floods, to cross with boats from this branch of the East 
Calumic into the Kankakee Pond through this cove. We 
have not been able to obtain any authentic topographical 
survey, which shows the elevation that it would be neces- 
sary to overcome in order to effect this meeting of the 
waters. 

Again. The river Des Plaines rises near the northern 
line of the State of Illinois, and running south parallel 
with the lake shore, forms, at its junction with the Kanka- 
kee, the Illinois. The Des Plaines is only ten miles west 
of Chicago. One of its eastern tributaries rises very near 
the head waters of the south branch of the Chicago River, 
and often, when flooded by heavy rains, its waters flow 
over into the lake. At this point, also, the Jesuits and the 
early settlers were in the habit of crossing in their boats 
to the Des Plaines, and thence into the Illinois. The 
writer is informed by Col. William A. Bird, the last Sur- 
veyor in Chief of the boundary Commission, that when 
the party was at Macinaw, in the spring of 1823, Mr. 
Ramsey Crooks, the adventurous and enterprising agent 
of the late Mr. John Jacob As tor, came up to that place 



Geology. 49 

from Joliet on the Illinois in one of the big canoes so 
generally used at that day for navigating the lakes, and 
that Mr. Crooks informed them that he crossed from the 
Des Plaines into Lake Michigan without taking his canoe 
out of the water. 

Again. The deep cut in the Illinois and Michigan 
Canal, recently excavated by the City of Chicago, in order 
to improve its sewer drainage, is quite uniform at its up- 
per surface, and is sixteen to eighteen feet deep for a dis- 
tance of twenty-six miles. The bottom of this cut is six 
feet below the lowest water-mark ever noted in the lake. 
At the point where the deep cut reaches the Des Plaines, 
it is ten feet lower than the bottom of the river. It is 
sixteen miles further down before the bottom of the cut 
and the river coincide with each other. Nearly the whole 
of this distance it is necessary to maintain a guard-bank, 
to protect the canal from the inundations of the river. 
Here we find there is a dam only about twelve feet high, 
that once separated the waters of the lake from those oi 
the Gulf of Mexico. 

There were, therefore, two courses through which the 
waters of Lake Michigan could once have passed into the 
Illinois ; the first through the Des Plaines, and the second 
from the head-springs of the East Calumic into the 
great north cove of the Kankakee Pond. When we con- 
sider the immense drainage which must have been dis- 
charged through these channels into the valley of the 
Illinois, we can well understand the gigantic proportions 
of that valley when compared with the stream which now 
flows through it. The perpendicular and water-worn 



50 Niagara. 

sides of Starved Rock, below Ottawa, attest the magni- 
tude oT the lake-like floods which must once liave dashed 
arounij tfhem. 

Having established the existence of the Niagara bar- 
rier, it remains to analyze its structure, and then to search 
outihe agencies by which it was broken down. First, in 
regard to its organization. An examination of the 
locality reveals the fact that the portion of the ridge ly- 
ing between old Fort Grey and Brock's Monument was 
of a peculiar character. At the former point the hard,, 
compact clay had in it but a slight mixture of grey loam 
and sand. At the latter point, fine gravel was plentifully 
mingled with this loam. This latter mass being quite 
porous, would rapidly become saturated with water, and 
its component parts be easily separated. The declivity 
of me high, hard clay bank, down to the rock at the edge 
of the precipice, is quite abrupt on the American side, 
while on the opposite side the ascent towards Brock's 
Monument, and above, is quite gradual. This formation 
extends upward about one mile and a-half, when the 
gravel and loam disappear, and the hard clay succeeds 
and continues upward with a gradual downward slope 
nearly to the Falls. 

This upper drift was about twenty feet thick, and rested 
on a laminated stratum of the Niagara lime-stone. This 
stratum, though quite compact, and having its seams 
closely jointed, yet was not so thoroughly indurated as 
the lower strata of the Niagara group, and its thin plates 
were more easily displaced and broken up. The depres- 
sion marked in the sixth mile of the profile referred to> 



Geology, 5 1 

was evidently cut out by the waters of Fish Creek, after 
the barriier had been removed, since the land near the 
head waters of this stream is higher than at the point 
where the line runs through the ridge. It is also notice- 
able that the ridge, at this point, approaches the brink of 
the escarpment more nearly than at any other, and- the 
sharp declivity of its northern face is clearly shown on 
the profile. 

Within the last century there have been two, and per- 
haps more, large tidal waves on the great lakes. There 
have also been many severe gales, which have inundated 
the low lands around their shores, and attacked, with de- 
structive effect, their higher banks. One of these gales- 
is mentioned in the sequel. It came from about two 
points north of west, and as noted, raised the water six 
feet perpendicular on the rapids above the Falls. In the 
narrow portions of the river above it must have elevated 
the water still more. Of course a much higher rise would 
have been produced by the force of such a gale acting 
upon the vastly increased surface of the larger lake. 

The first serious impression upon the Niagara barrier 
must have been made by these two mighty forces. By 
them, undoubtedly, was the first breach made over its 
top, thus commencing that slow but sure denudation, 
which finally reached the rock below. And by their aid 
was even the rock itself removed. 

Here then, — changing the tense, — is the composition, 
and structure of our dam. It is thirty feet high, with a 
base two-and-a-half miles certainly, and probably five, in. 
width. How to break through it, is the problem to be 



5 2 Niagara. 

solved — or dissolved — by the great inland sea which laves 
it, so that the water may flow onward and downward to 
the Atlantic. 

Fortunately we have, all along the shores of our inland 
lakes, an annual demonstration of the method by which 
such problems are solved. A constant abrasion of their 
banks is produced by the action of water, frost and ice. 
And these are the resistless elements, which, by their per- 
sistent and powerful action during the lapse of ages, are 
to excavate a channel for the waters of the Niagara. The 
gradual upward slope of the rock and the thick upper 
drift broke the force of the huge waves that were oc- 
casionally dashed upon them. Their position could not 
have been more favorable to resist attack. It was a 
Malakoff of earth on a foundation of rock. Little by little 
the refluent waves carried back portions of the crumbled 
mass, and deposited them in the neighboring depres- 
sions. Slowly, wearily, desultorily the erosion and des- 
quamation went on. At last the upper drift was broken 
down, and its crumbled remains swept from the rock. 

Then the insidious forces of heat and cold, sun and 
frost became potent. The thin laminae of limestone were 
loosened by the frost, broken up and disintegrated. At 
last a thin sheet of water was driven through the gorge by 
some fierce gale. The steep declivity of the counterscarp 
was then fatally attacked, and after a time its perpen- 
dicular face laid bare. Thenceforth the elements had 
the top and one end of the rocky mass to work on, and 
they worked at a tremendous advantage. The breaking 
up and disintegration, of the rock went on. It was gradu- 



Geology. 53 

ally crumbled into sand which was washed off by the 
rains and swept away by the winds. Finally a channel 
was excavated, of which the bottom was lower than the 
surface of the great lake above ; the sparkling waters 
rushed in, dashed over the precipice, and Niagara was 
bom. 

As the water worked its way over the precipice gradu- 
ally, so it would gradually excavate its channel to Lake 
Ontario, and it is not probable that any great inundation 
of the lower terrace could have occurred. 



CHAPTER VII. 

GEOLOGY. 

Composition of terrace cut through — Why retrocession is 
possible — Three sections from Lewiston to Falls — DeviPs 
Hole — Medina group — Recession long checked — Whirl- 
pool — Soon cut out — ^Outlet narrowest^part of river — Rap- 
ids above — The mirror — Depth of water and chasm — - 
Former grand Fall — Height of Falls. 

THE water having laid bare the face of the mountain 
from top to bottom, we are enabled to examine the 
composition of the mass through which it has been slowly 
cutting its way. After removing the thin plates of the 
upper stratum, as we descend, according to Professor 
Hall, we find : 

1. Niagara limestone — compact and geodiferous. 

2. Soft argillo-calcareous shale. 



54 Niagara, 

3. Compact grey limestone. 

4. Thin layers of green shale. 

5. Grey and mottled sandstone constituting with those 
below the Medina group. 

6. Red shale and marl with thin courses of sandstone 
near the top. 

7. Grey quart zose sandstone. 

8. Red shaly sandstone and marl. 

Before reaching the Whirlpool the mass becomes, prac- 
tically, resolved into numbers three, four and five, the 
limestone, as a general rule, growing thicker and harder, 
.and the shale also, as we follow up the stream. 

The reason why retrocession of the Fall is possible is 
found in the occurrence of the shale noted above as un- 
derlying the rock. It is a species of indurated clay, 
harder or softer according to the pressure to which it 
may have been subjected. When protected from the ac- 
tion of the elements it retains its hardness, but when 
exposed to them it gradually softens and crumbles away. 
After a time the superstratum of rock, which is full of 
cracks and seams, is undermined and precipitated into 
the chasm below. If the stratum of shale lies at or near 
the bottom of the channel below the Fall it will be 
measureably protected from the action of the elements. 
In this case retrocession will necessarily be very gradual. 
If above the Fall the shale projects upward from the 
channel below, then in proportion to the elevation and 
thickness of its stratum will be the ease and rapidity of 
disintegration and retrocession. It results, therefore, 
that the shale furnishes a very good standard by which to 



Geologv. e c 

determine the comparative rapidity with which the retro- 
cession has been accomplished at different points. 

From the base of the escarpment at Lewiston up the 
narrow bend in the channel above the Devil's Hole, a 
distance of four and a quarter miles, the shale varies 'in 
thickness above the water, from one hundred and thirty 
feet at the commencement of the gorge, to one hundred 
and ten feet at the upper extremity of the bend. Here 
although there is very little upward curve in the limestone,' 
yet there is a decided curve upward in the Medina group,' 
noticed above, composed mainly of a hard, red sandstone.' 
It projects across the chasm, and also extends upward to 
near the neck of the Whirlpool, where it dips suddenly 
downward. The two strata of shale becoming apparently 
united, follow its dip and also extend upward until they 
reach their maximum elevation near the middle of the 
Whirlpool. Thence the shale gradually dips again to the 
Railway Suspension Bridge, three-quarters of a mile above. 
For the remainmg one and a half miles from this Bridge 
to the present site of the Falls the dip is downward to 
the new Suspension Bridge, where it rises again and 
passes under the Falls to Table Rock. 

We may then divide this reach of the Niagara River 
into three sections : 

First. From Lewiston to the Bend above the Devil's 
Hole. 

Second. Thence to the head of the rapid above the 
Railway Suspension Bridge. 
Third. Thence to the present site of the Falls. 
We are now prepared to consider these sections with 



56 Niagara. 

reference to the retrocession of the fall of water. Through 
the first section the shale, as before noted, lying much 
above the water surface, and the superposed limestone 
being rather soft and thinner than at any point above, 
the retreat was probably quite uniform and comparatively 
rapid, about the same progress having been made in each 
of the centuries required to accomplish its whole length. 
Professor James Hall, in his able and interesting Report 
on the Geology of the Fourth District of the State of New 
York, suggests the probability of there having been three 
distinct Falls, one below the other, for some distance up 
stream, when the retrocession first began. The average 
width of this section between the banks is one thousand 
feet. About one mile below its upper extremity is the 
^^ Devil's Hole,'^ a side-chasm cut out of the American 
bank of the river by a small stream called " Bloody Run,'^ 
which, in heavy rains forms quite a torrent. The " Hole'' 
has been made by the detrition and washing out of the 
shale and the fall of the over-lying rock. 

Near the upper end of this section there is a rocky 
cape, which juts out from the Canada bank, and reaches 
nearly two-thirds of the distance across the chasm. At 
this point the great Fall met with a more obstinate and 
longer continued resistance than at any other, for the 
reason that the fine, firm sandstone, belonging to the Me- 
dina group, as has been stated, here projects across the 
channel of the river, and forming a part of its bed, rises 
upward several feet above the surface of the water. And 
here, this hard, compact rock held the cataract for many 
centuries ; the crooked channel which incessant friction 



Geology. 57 

and hammering finally cut through it, being one of the 
narrowest in the river. The average width between the 
banks of this section is about nine hundred feet. 

In the second section is found the Whirlpool, one of 
the most interesting and attractive portions of the river. 
The large basin in which it lies was cut out much more 
rapidly than any other part of the chasm. And this for 
the reason that, in addition to the thick stratum of shale, 
there was, underlying the channel, a large pocket, and, 
probably also, a broad seam or cleavage filled with gravel 
and pebbles. Indeed there is a broad and very ancient 
cleavage in the rock-wall on the Canada side, extending 
from near the top of the bank to an unknown depth be- 
low. Its course can be traced from the north side of the 
pool some distance in a north-westerly direction. Of 
course the resistless power of the falling water was not 
long restrained by these feeble barriers, and here the 
broadest and deepest notch of any given century was 
made. The name. Whirlpool, is not quite accurate, since 
the body of water to which it is applied is rather a large 
eddy, in which small whirlpools are constantly forming 
and breaking. The spectator cannot realize the tremen- 
dous power exerted by these pools, unless there is some 
object floating upon the surface by which it may be 
demonstrated. Logs from broken rafts are frequently 
carried over the Falls, and when they reach this eddy^ 
tree trunks from two to three feet in diameter and fifty 
feet long, after a few preliminary and stately gyrations, 
are drawn down endwise, submerged for awhile and then 
ejected with great force, to resume again their devious 

E 



58 Niagara, 

way in the resistless current. And they will often be 
kept in this monotonous round from four to six weeks 
before escaping to the rapids below. The writer has 
seen the bodies of a man, a horse and a hog, floating to- 
gether in unconscious equality for weeks before thus 
escaping. 

The cleft in the bed-rock which forms the debouche 
of the basin is the narrowest part of the river, being only 
four hundred feet in width. Standing on one side of this 
gorge, and considering that the whole volume of the 
water in the river is rushing through it, the spectator wit- 
nesses a manifestation of physical force which makes a 
more vivid impression upon his mind than even the great 
Fall itself. No extravagant attempt at fine writing, no 
studied and elaborate description can exaggerate the won- 
derful beauty and fascination of this pool. Separated 
from the habitations of men, at a distance from any high- 
way, lying secluded in the midst of a small tract of wood, 
which has fortunately been preserved around it, and in 
which the dark and pale greens of stately pines and 
cedars predominate, and impart a shade of deeper green 
to the borders of the water in the basin below, while with- 
in the basin the waters are rushing onward, plunging 
downward, leaping upward, combing over at the top in 
beautiful waves and ruffles of dazzling whiteness, and 
shaded down, through all the opalescent tints, to the 
deep emerald at their base \ whirling, rippling, rushing, 
tumbling, dancing, flashing, roaring, murmuring, sighing, 
singing, every liquid note and tone clear and distinct, in 
the grand diapason which includes the voice of many 



Geology, 59 

waters ; ever varying, never presenting the same aspects 
in any two consecutive moments \ incarnation of change 
and emblem of eternity, the beholder is now lost in ad- 
miration, anon clapping his hands in glee, and again look- 
ing with moistened eyes as he comprehends more and 
more the many-sided and varied beauties of the match- 
less scene. Hyperbolical as this may appear to care- 
less travelers, it will seem but simple truth to true 
students and lovers of nature. None of those who may 
visit the Whirlpool should fail to go down the bank to 
the water's edge. On a bright summer morning, after a 
night shower has laid the dust, cleansed and brightened 
the foliage of shrub and tree, purified and glorified the 
atmosphere, there are few more inviting and charming 
views. 

The remaining portion of this section is a beautiful 
curve, reaching up just above the railway Suspension 
Bridge. The water is in a perpetual tumult, a perfect 
embodiment of the spirit of unrest. Owing to the rapidity 
of the descent and the narrowness of the curve, the 
water is forced into a broken ridge in the centre of the 
channel. There, in its wild tumult, it is tossed up into 
fanciful cones and mounds, which are crowned with a 
flashing coronal of liquid gems, by the isolated drops and 
delicate spray thrown off from the whirling mass, some- 
times to the height of thirty feet. 

Standing on the Bridge and looking down stream, the 

oectator will see near by, on the American shore, a very 

ood illustration of the manner in which the shale, there 

[Cropping out above the surface of the water, is worn 



6b Niagara. 

away, leaving the superposed rock projecting beyond it. 

In the third and last section the shale continues its 
downward dip, and at several places entirely disappears- 
The rock lying upon it is quite compact, and some of it 
very hard. The deep water, into which the falling water 
was formerly received, partially protected the shale, so 
that many centuries must have elapsed before the excava- 
tion of this section was completed. 

Sixty rods below the American Fall is the upper Sus- 
pension Bridge. The distance between the banks at this 
point is twelve hundred feet. The average width of the 
section is eleven hundred feet. From this bridge, look- 
ing downward, no one can fail to be impressed with the 
serene and quiet beauty of the mirror below, reflecting 
from the surface of its emerald and apparently unfathom- 
able depths, life-size and life-like images of surrounding 
objects. The calm, majestic, unbroken current is in 
striking contrast with the fall and foam and chopping 
sea above. 

The average depth of the water between the two Sus- 
pension Bridges, as ascertained by measuring, is one hun- 
dred feet. But it must be borne in mind that this is the 
depth of the water flowing above the immense mass of 
rock, stones and gravel which has fallen into the channel. 
The bottom of the chasm, therefore, must be more than a 
hundred feet lower, since the fallen rocks, having tumbled 
down promiscuously, must occupy much more space, than 
they did in their original bed. There are isolated points^ 
as at the Whirlpool and Devil's Hole, where the river i& 
wider than in any part of this section, but the depth is. 



Geology. 6 1 

less. Taking into consideration both depth and width, 
this is the finest part of the chasm. And for this reason 
chiefly, when the great Cataract was at a point about one 
hundred rods below the upper Bridge, it must have pre- 
sented its subHmest aspect. The secondary bank on 
each side of the river, is here high and firm, whereby the 
whole mass of water must have been concentrated into 
a single channel of greater depth at the top of the Fall 
than it could have had at any other point. And here the 
mighty column exerted its most terrific force, rolling over 
the precipice in one broad, vertical curve, water falling 
into water and lifting up, perpetually, that snowy veil of 
mist and spray which constitute, at any point, its crown- 
ing beauty. Deep calleth unto deep, in the storms, 
around the capes and amidst the caves of the ocean, but 
nowhere with a voice so continuous, majestic and solemn 
as might then have been heard. 

From near the Ferry stairs passing under the American 
Falls, Goat Island, the Horse-Shoe Fall, Table Rock, 
and for some distance down the Canada bank, there is a 
decided upward curve, and at the same time a softening 
of the shale. To this softer shale was due the great over- 
hang of the American Fall noticed by Father Hennepin 
and the Baron La Hontan, and of Table Rock while it 
was standing. And here a remarkable change occurs in 
the physical features of the locality. For three miles 
above the Falls the course of the river is a little north of 
east, or south of west as the current runs. But after leav- 
ing the precipice which sustains the present Fall, it makes 
an acute angle with its former direction and thence to the 



62 Niagara, 

railway Suspension Bridge, runs nearly north-east. The 
general trend of the stratified rocks is north-east and 
south-west, the dip of the strata being in the latter direc- 
tion. It is owing to this fact that the surface of the water 
above the Fall on the American side is ten feet higher 
than it is on the Canadian. The continuous column of 
water, however, is longer in the centre of the Horse-Shoe 
Fall because of the fallen rock and debris lying at the 
foot of the other portions of the Falls. Keeping these 
facts in mind, we shall properly understand the statement 
generally made, that the American is ten feet higher than 
the Canadian Fall. 



CHAPTER Vni. 

GEOLOGY. 

Recession above present position — Falls will be higher as 
they recede — Reason Why — Possible new feature — Present 
and former accumulations of Rock — How removed — Ter- 
rific power of the elements— Ice and ice bridges. 

THERE is probably little foundation for the appre- 
hension which has been expressed that the reces- 
sion of the chasm will ultimately reach Lake Erie and 
lower its level, or that the bed of the river will be worn 
into an inclined plane by gradual detrition, thus changing 
the perpendicular Fall into a tumultuous rapid. And for 
these reasons, namely : First, that the contour or periph- 




'y/J 



^ycey U>cy/Z/a^c 



Geology, 63 

ery of the fall in its present location is much greater 
than it could have been at any point below. Conse- 
quently a much less body of water and much less effec- 
tive in force is passed over any given portion of the preci- 
pice, the current being also divided by Goat and Luna 
Islands. Second, that the river bed increases in width 
above the Fall until it reaches Grand Island, which^ 
being twelve miles in length by eight in width, divides the 
river into two broad channels, thus still further diminish- 
ing the weight and force of the faUing water. The average 
width of the channel from Lewiston upward, is one thou- 
sand feet. The present periphery of the Falls and Is- 
lands is four thousand two hundred feet. Of course the 
water concentrated in mass and force below the present 
Falls must have proved vastly more effective in disin- 
tegrating and breaking down the shale and limestone 
than it possibly can be at any point above. 

But long continued observation of the locality enables 
the writer to offer still other reasons why the Fall will 
never dwindle down to a rapid. As has already been 
noticed, the course of the river above the present Fall is 
a little south of west, so that it flows across the trend of 
the bed-rock. Hence, as the Falls recede there can be 
no diminution in their altitude resulting from the dip of 
this rock. On the contrary, there is a rise of fifty feet to 
the head of the present rapids, and a further rise of 
twenty feet to the level of Lake Erie. During the last 
two years (187 1-2) the bed of the river from Buffalo 
to Cayuga Creek has been thoroughly examined for the 
purpose of locating piers for railway bridges over the 



64 Niagara, 

stream. The greatest depth at which they found the 
rock — ^just below Black Rock dam — was forty-five feet. 
Generally the rock was found to be only twenty to twenty- 
five feet below the surface of the water. 

About five miles above the present Falls there is, in 
the bottom of the river, a shelf of rock stretching, in 
nearly a straight line, across the channel to Grand Island 
and having, apparently, a perpendicular face about six- 
teen inches deep. Its presence is indicated by a short 
but decided curve in the surface of the water above it, 
the water itself varying in depth from eleven to sixteen 
feet. The shelf above referred to extends under Grand 
Island and across the Canada channel of the river, under 
which, however, its face is no longer perpendicular. If 
the Falls were at this point they would be fifty-five feet 
higher than they are now, supposing the bed-rock to be 
firm. Now, by excavations made during the last year 
(1870) for the new railway from Suspension Bridge to 
Buffalo, the surface rock has been found to be compact 
and hard, much of it unusually so. As a general rule it 
is well known that the greater the depth at which any 
given kind of rock lies below the surface, and the greater 
the depth to which it is penetrated, the more compact 
and hard it will be found to be. The rock which was 
found to be so hard, in excavating for the railway, lies 
within six feet of the surface. The deepest water in the 
Niagara river between the Falls and Bufialo is twenty-five 
feet. At this point, then, it would seem that the shale of 
the Niagara group must be at such a depth that the top 
of it is below the surface of the water at the bottom of the 



Geology. 65 

present Fall. Hence, being protected from the disin- 
tegrating action of the atmosphere, and the incessant 
chiseling of the dashing spray, it would make a firm foun- 
dation for the hard limestone which would form the per- 
pendicular ledge over which the water would fall. Sup- 
posing the bottom of the channel below this fall to have 
the same declivity as 'that for a mile below the present 
fall, the then Cataract would be, as has been before 
stated, fifty-five feet higher than the present one. If we 
should allow fifty feet for a soft surface limestone, full of 
cleavages and seams which might be easily broken down, 
still the new fall would be five feet higher than the old 
one. But, so far as can now be discovered, there is no 
geological necessity, so to speak, for making any such 
allowance. In the new Cataract the American Fall would 
still be the highest, and its line across the channel quite 
straight. The Canadian Fall would undoubtedly present 
a curve, but more gradual and uniform than the present 
horse-shoe. 

But there might possibly occur one new feature in the 
chasm-channel of the river as the result of any future re- 
cession. That would be the presence in that channel of 
rocky islands, similar to that which has already formed 
just below the American Fall. The points at which 
these islands would be likely to form are those where the 
indurated rock of either the Medina or the Niagara group 
lies near the surface of the water. This probably was the 
case at the narrow bend below the Whirlpool, before 
noticed, and from thence up to the outlet of the pool. 
After considering what must have occurred in the last 



66 Niagara. 

case, we may form some opinion concerning the proba- 
bilities in reference to the first. 

We can hardly resist the conclusion, that masses of 
fallen rock must have accumulated below the Whirlpool 
as we now see them under the American Fall. But if so, 
where are they ? The answer to this question brings us 
to the consideration of the most remarkable phenomenon 
connected with this wonderful river. To the beholder it 
is matter of astonishment what can have become of the 
great mass of earth, rock, gravel and boulders, large and 
small, which once filled the immense chasm that lies below 
him. He learns that the water for a mile belo^ the Falls 
is one hundred feet deep, and flows over a mass of fallen 
rock and stone of equal depth lying below it ; he sees a 
chasm of nearly double these dimensions, more than half 
of which was once filled with solid rock ; he beholds the 
large quantities which have already fallen, which are still 
defiant, still breasting the ceaseless hammering of the de- 
scending flood. For centuries past this process has been 
going on until a chasm seven miles long, a thousand feet 
wide and, including the secondary banks, more than three 
hundred feet deep, has been excavated, and the material 
which filled it entirely removed. How? By what? 
Frost was the agent, ice was his delver, water his 
carrier, and the basin of Lake Ontario his dumping ground. 
Whatever is may have been ; and although it is not 
probable that any islands similar to Goat Island have ex- 
isted in the channel from Lewiston upward, still it is 
probable that when the Fall receded from the rocky cape 
below the Whirlpool up to the pool, it left masses of rock, 



Geology. 67 

large and small, lying on the rocky floor and projecting 
above the surface of the water. As there were no islands 
above, there were no broken, tumultuous rapids. As has 
been before remarked, the water poured over in one 
broad, deep, resistless flood. When frozen by the intense 
cold of winter the great cakes of ice would descend with 
crushing force on these rocks. The smaller ones would 
be broken, pulverized and swept down stream ; the chan- 
nel for the water would be gradually enlarged, and the 
larger masses thus partially undermined. Then the spray 
and dashing water would freeze and the ice accumulate 
upon them until they were toppled over. Then the fall- 
ing ice would recommence its chipping labours, and with 
every piece of ice knocked off a portion of the rock would 
go with it. Finally as the cold continued, the master force,, 
the mightiest of mechanical powers would be brought into 
action. The vast quantities of ice pouring over the preci- 
pice would freeze together, agglomerate and form an ice- 
bridge. The roof being formed, the succeeding cakes of 
ice are drawn under and, raising it, are frozen to it. This 
process goes on. Every piece of rock above and below 
the surface is embraced in a relentless icy grip. Millions 
of tons are frozen fast together. The water and ice con- 
tinue to plunge over the precipice. The principle of the 
hydrostatic press is made effective. Then commences a 
crushing and grinding process which is perfectly terrific. 
Under the resistless pressure brought to bear upon it, the 
huge mass moves half an inch in one direction and an 
hundred cubic feet of rock are crushed to powder. There 
is a pause. Then again the immense structure moves 



68 Niagara, 

lialf an inch another way, and once more the crumbling 
atoms attest its awful power. This goes on for weeks 
continuously. Finally the temperature changes. The 
sun-light becomes potent; the ice ceases to form; the 
warm rays loosen the grip of the ice-bridge along the bor- 
ders of the chasm below. The water becomes more 
abundant; the bridge rises, bringing in its icy grasp 
whatever it had attached itself to beneath ; it breaks up 
into masses of different dimensions ; each mass starts 
downward with the growing current, breaking down or 
filing off everything with which it comes in contact. The 
smaller bits and finer particles, after filling the interstices 
between the larger rocks in the bottom of the chasm, are 
borne lakeward. The heavier portions make a part of 
the journey this year ; they will make another part next 
year, and another the next, being constantly disintegrated 
and pulverized. This work has been going on for many 
centuries. The result is seen in the vast bar of unknown 
depth which is spread over the bottom of Lake Ontario 
around the mouth of the river. 




'■^ 



^■<. 



' ^^r(^.zeyryryo/^.a^.ey c^^f^^ceyi^ 



"iAceJ. 



Geology, 69 



CHAPTER IX. 

GEOLOGY. 

Niagara in winter — Frozen spray — Ice foliage and ice apples 
— Frozen sunlight^ Frozen rainbows — Ice-moss — Frozen 
fog — Rataplan of icicles — Ice islands — Ice statues — Sleigh-^ 
riding on American rapids — Boys coasting on them — Ice 
gorge — Ice pulling up trees — Remarkable geognosy of 
earth's surface — Bottom of Lake Huron below tide water. 

WHOSO hath seen Niagara in summer only, has but 
half seen it. In winter its beauties are not diminish- 
ed, while the accessories to its sublimity are numerous and 
varied. After two or three weeks of intensely cold weather 
many beautiful and fantastic scenes are presented around 
the Falls. The different varieties of stalactites and stalag- 
mites hanging from or apparently supporting the project- 
ing rocks along the side walls of the deep chasm ; the ice 
islands which grow on the bars and around the rocks in 
the river ; the white caps and hoods which are formed on 
the rocks below ; the fanciful statuary and statuesque 
forms which gather on and around the trees and bushes, are 
all curious and interesting. Exceedingly beautiful are 
the white vestments of frozen spray with which ever)^ 
thing in the immediate vicinity is robed and shielded ; 
and beautiful too are the clusters of ice apples which tip 
the extremities of the branches of the evergreen trees. 



yo Niagara. 

There is something marvellous in the purity and white- 
ness of congealed spray. One might think it to be frozen 
sunlight. And when by reason of an angle or a curve 
it is thrown into shadow, one sees where the rainbow has 
been caught and frozen in. After a day of sunshine which 
has been sufficiently warm to fill the atmosphere with 
aqueous vapor, if a sharp, still, cold night succeed, and 
on this there break a clear, calm morning, the scene pre- 
sented is one of unique and enchanting beauty. The 
frozen spray on every boll, limb and twig of tree and 
shrub, on every stiffened blade of grass, on every rigid 
stem and tendril of every trailing vine, is covered over 
with a fine white powder, a frosty bloom, from which 
there springs a line of delicate frost-spines, forming a per- 
fect fringe of ice-moss, than which nothing more fanciful 
and beautiful can be imagined. Then as the day advan- 
ces and the increasing warmth of the sun's rays dissolves 
this fairy frost-work and spreads it as a delicate varnish 
over the solid spray, giving it a brilliant polish rivaling 
the lustre of the rarest gems ; and as the mid-morning 
breeze sets in motion this flashing, dazzling forest, which 
varies its color as the sunlight-angle varies \ and finally 
when the waxing warmth and growing breeze loosen the 
hold of the icy covering in the tree-tops and it drops to 
the still solid surface in the shade beneath, the tiny par- 
ticles with a silver tinkle and the larger pieces with the 
sharp, rattling sound of the castenet, the ear is charmed 
with a wild, dashing rataplan^ while a scene of strange 
but veritable enchantment challenges the admiration of 
the spectator. 



Geology, 7 1 

Even more beautiful and fairy-like, if possible, is the 
garment oi frozen fog^ with which all external objects are 
adorned and etherealized when the spring advances, and 
the temperature of the water is raised. As the sharp, 
still night wears on, the light mists begin to rise, and 
when the morning breaks, the river is buried in a deep, 
dense bank of fog. A gentle wave of air bears it land- 
ward \ its progress is stayed by every thing with which it 
comes in contact, and as soon as its motion is arrested, 
it freezes sufficiently to adhere to whatever it touches. So 
it grows upon itself, and all things are soon covered half 
an inch in depth with a most delicate and fragile fringe of 
frozen fog of intensest whiteness. The morning sun dis- 
pels the mist, and in an hour the gay frost-work vanishes. 

The ice islands are sometimes quite extensive. In the 
year 1856 the whole of the rocky bar above Goat Island 
was covered with ice, piled together in a rough heap, the 
lower end of which rested on Goat Island, and the three 
Moss Islands lying outside of it, all of which were visited 
by different persons passing over this new route. The ice 
formed on the rocks below the American Fall, stretched up- 
ward, reached the edge of the precipice just north of the 
Little Horse-shoe, continued up stream above Chapin's 
Island, spread out laterally from that to Goat Island on the 
south, and over nearly half of the American rapids to the 
north. At the brow of the precipice it accumulated upward 
until it formed a ridge some forty feet high. Some fifteen 
rods up stream another ridge was formed about half the 
height of the first. Every rock projecting upward bore an 
immence ice cap. Around and between these mounds and 



72 Niagara. 

caps the sporting equestrians drove their horses, albeit 
the course was not favorable for quick time. The boys 
drew their sleds to the top of the large mound, slid down 
it, up stream, and nearly to the top of the smaller hill. — 
On the lower, or down stream side, they would have had 
a clear course to the water below, and might have made 
*' time,'^ compared with which Dexter's minimum would 
have seemed only a funeral march. But with all Young 
America's passion for speed, he declined to try this route- 
The writer walked over the south end of Luna Island, 
above the tops of the trees. 

The ice bridge of that year filled the whole chasm from 
the railway Suspension Bridge up past the American 
Fall. When the ice broke up in the spring, such im- 
mense quantities were carried down that, on the occur- 
rence of a strong northerly wind across Lake Ontario, a 
jam occured at Fort Niagara. The ice accumulated and 
set back until it reached the Whirlpool, and could be 
crossed at any point between it and the Fort. It was 
lifted up about sixty feet above the surface, and spread 
out over both shores, crushing and destroying every thing 
with which it came in contact. Many persons from dif- 
ferent parts of the country visited the extraordinary scene. 
At Lewiston the writer, with many others, saw a most 
remarkable illustration of the almost omnipotent power of 
the hydrostatic press. Just below the village, on the 
American side, there stood, about two rods from high- 
water mark, a sound, thrifty, tough white-oak tree, per- 
haps a hundred years old, and two feet in diameter.. 
The ice, moved by the water, struck it near the ground 



'Geology. 73 

and pressed it outward and upward, until it actually pulled 
it up by the roots, — or rather broke off some of the roots 
and pulled out others, — and landed it twenty feet up the 
bank. Those who watched the operation stated, that 
from the time the ice touched the tree, until it was landed 
on the bank above, the motion of the ice could not be de- 
tected by the eye. Slowly, steadily, surely it pressed on. 
Suddenly there would be an explosion, sharp and loud, 
when a root gave way. No motion in the ice or tree 
could be discovered. After a lapse of two or three hours 
another sharp crack would give notice of another fracture. 
Thus it went gradually on, and in ten hours the work was 
done. Invisible was that motion, yet invincible was 
its force. A thousandth part of this would pulverize a 
boulder of adamant. We need not wonder that the river 
Niagara keeps its channel clear. In the ice gorge of 
1866 the ice was set back to the upper end of the Whirl- 
pool, over which it was twenty feet deep. The Whirlpool 
rapid was subdued nearly to an unbroken current, and 
all below to Lake Ontario was reduced to a gentle flow of 
quiet waters. Never was there a sublimer contest of the 
great forces of nature. The frost laid its hand upon the 
raging torrent and it was still. 

And finally, to the force we have been considering, 
more than to any other, it is probable that all the coming 
generations of men will be indebted for a grand and per- 
pendicular Fall somewhere between its present location 
and Lake St. Clair ; for it must be remembered that the 
bottom of Lake Erie is but fourteen feet lower than the top 
of the present Fall, and the bottom of Lake St. Clair is 

F 



74 Niagara, 

eighteen feet higher. It may also be considered that the 
corniferous limestone of the Onondaga group, — which 
succeeds the Niagara group as we approach Lake Erie, — 
is quite as competent to maintain a perpendicular face as 
is the limestone of the latter group. 

We may here appropriately notice a remarkable feature 
in the Geognosy of the earth's surface from Lake Huron 
to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We have before stated that 
the elevation of that lake above tide-water is five hundred 
and seventy-eight feet. But its depth, according to Dr. 
Houghton, is one thousand feet. If this statement is cor- 
rect, the bottom of it is four hundred and twenty-two feet 
below the sea level. The elevation of Lake St. Clair is 
five hundred and seventy feet. But its depth is only 
twenty feet, leaving its bottom five hundred and fifty feet 
above the sea level. The elevation of Lake Erie is five 
hundred and sixty-eight feet. But it is only eighty-four 
feet deep, making it four hundred and eighty-four feet 
above the sea level. From Lake Erie to Lake Ontario 
there is a descent of three hundred and thirty-six feet. 
But the latter lake is five hundred feet deep, and its ele- 
vation two hundred and thirty-two feet. Hence the bot- 
tom of it is two hundred and sixty-eight feet below the 
sea level. From the foot of Lake Ontario runs the St. 
Lawrence river, eight hundred and twenty miles to tide 
water, falling two hundred and thirty-two feet in this dis- 
tance. The facts will be at once understood by referring 
to the diagram given on the map, the base of the triangle 
being diminished for convenience. The hypothenuse is 
fifteen hundred miles long, and the water from the springs 



Geology. 75 

in the bottom of Lake Huron is compelled to climb a 
mountain nine hundred and eighty feet high before it can 
start on this long oceanward journey. It may also be 
noticed that the bottom of Lake Michigan, which has the 
same depth as Lake Huron, is one hundred and twenty- 
two feet below the low-water line of the Ohio at its mouth, 
as may be seen by reference to the survey of the Illinois 
Central Rail-road, heretofore given. 



PART THIRD, 



CHAPTER X. ^ 

LOCAL HISTORY AND INCIDENTS. 

Judge Porter— General Porter — Goat Island — Origin of 
its name — Its diminution — Early dates found ok 
Trees and in Rock — Visited by the Indians — Kalm's 
Wonderful story — Bridges to the Island — Method of 
Construction — Red Jacket — Anecdotes — Stone Tower — 
Biddle Stairs — Sam Patch — Depth of Water on the 
Horse- Shoe — Ships sent over the Falls — Animals on 
Board. 

THE writer is well aware how much he violates the 
unities by mingling together the elements of the His- 
toric, Geologic and Narrative portions of his composition. 
But he has preferred to string his shells as he found them 
and to record the impressions they suggested at the time^ 
rather than to classify and arrange them for more elaborate 
description and discussion. The subject is indeed a 
flowing one, and some embarrassment arises in deciding 
what to select, and where to stop. 

In addition to the authorities to which the writer has 
been so greatly indebted in preparing this narrative, he 
has had the good fortune to listen to many oral relations 



History and Incidents, "jj 

of facts and incidents by two distinguished citizens,*" whose 
names are intimately and honorably connected with the 
more recent history, not only of this particular locality 
but with that of the whole State. 

Judge Porter, after having spent several years in survey- 
ing and lotting large portions of the territory of Western 
New York and the Western Reserve in Ohio, came from 
Canandaigua to Niagara Falls with his family in June, 
1806, where he continued to live until his death, nearly 
fifty years afterwards. 

Gen. Porter settled as a lawyer at Canandaigua in 
1795, removed to Black Rock in 1810, and to Niagara 
Falls in 1838. 

In 1806 the two brothers became interested with others 
in the purchase from the State of New York of four lots 
in the Mile Strip lying both above and below the Falls. 
A few years later they purchased not only the interest of 
their partners in these lots, but other lands at different 
points along this Strip. In 18 i4*they bought of Samuel 
Sherwood a paper, since named a Jloat^ an instrument 
given by the State authorizing the bearer to locate two 
hundred acres of any of the unsold or unappropriated 
lands belonging to the State. This float they fortunately 
anchored on Goat Island and the islands adjacent thereto, 
lying "immediately above and adjoining the Great 
Falls." The wherefore of the name of the larger island 
is as follows. Mr. John Stedman who came into the 

* The late Judge Augustus Porter and the late General Peter B. 
Porter. 



78 Niagara. 

country in 1760, had cleared a portion of the upper end 
of the island, and in the summer of 1779, he placed on 
it a few small animals. Chief among these was an aged 
and very dignified male goat. The following winter was 
very severe, navigation to the Island was impracticable 
and he fell a victim to the intense cold. For a time he 
was, like Juan Fernandez, " monarch of all he survey ed^^ . 
and like him he left his name to his water-bound home. 
By the terms of the Treaty of Ghent, 181 5, the boun- 
dary line between Great Britain and the United States on 
the Niagara Frontier, was to run through the deepest 
water along the river courses and through the centre of 
the great lakes. As the deepest water, at this point, is 
in the center of the Horse-shoe Fall, the islands in the 
river fell to the Americans. General Porter, acting as 
Commissioner for the United States, proposed to call the 
largest one Iris Island, and it was so printed on the 
boundary maps. But the public adhered to the old name, 
refusing to adopt the new one. So the Goat, being dead^ 
still speaketh, or rather is spoken, while the heathen 
Goddess is visible in her beautiful hues, which may be 
accepted as a fair division of the honors. One of the 
early chronicles states that the island contained two 
hundred and fifty acres of land. At the present time 
there are in it less than seventy. A strip some ten rods 
wide by eighty rods long has been worn away from the 
southern side of it since 18 18, when Judge Porter made 
the first road around it. The earliest date he found on it 
was 1 765 carved on a beech tree. The earliest date cut 
in the rock on the main land was 1645. Human bones 



History and Incidents. 79 

and arrow-heads were found on the island. The Indians 
went to it with their canoes which they paddled up and 
down in the comparatively quiet water lying on the rocky 
bar which extends upward nearly a mile above the head 
of the island. 

Notwithstanding this fact, the Swedish Naturalist, 
Kalm, who visited the place in 1 7 50, relates afabulous story 
of two Indians, who, on a hunting excursion above the 
Falls, drank too freely from ''two bottles of French brandy'' 
which they brought from Fort Niagara ; got sleepy and laid 
themselves down in the bottom of their canoe for a nap. 
The canoe swung off shore and floated down stream. 
Nearing the rapids the noise awakened one of them who 
had apparently been more fortunate in learning the 
English language from the French than most of his tribe, 
for seeing their perilous situation he exclaimed, "we are 
gone.^' But the two plied their paddles with such 
aboriginal vigor, that they succeeded in landing on Goat 
Island. From the sequel it would seem that they must 
have destroyed or lost their canoe. Finding no houses of 
refreshment, nor cairns of stores left by former explorers, 
and most naturally getting hungry, they concluded it 
would be desirable to get back to the Fort, a wish 
more easily expressed than accomplished. 

But it was necessary for them to "do or die.'^ So, as 
the story runs, they stripped the bark from the basswood 
trees, and with it made a ladder long enough to reach 
from a tree standing on the edge of the precipice at the 
foot of the island down to the water below. They prob- 
ably did not waste any time in discussing the Darwinian 



8o ^ Niagara. 

question of natural selection, nor puzzle their brains to 
determine which species of the genus simiidse might be 
responsible for their origin ; but practically they must 
have done cUmbing enough, in order to loosen the top 
ends of their basswood st;rips, to vindicate their claim to 
a monkey paternity. After dropping their ladder they 
followed it downward. Reaching the water and being 
good swimmers, they plunged in with great glee, expect- 
ing to be able to swim across to the opposite shore, which 
they could easily climb. But the counter-current forced 
them back to the island. After being a good deal bruised 
on the rocks, they were compelled to abandon the at- 
tempt to cross, and then returned up their ladder to the 
Jsland. There, after much whooping, they attracted the 
notice of other Indians on the shore. These reported 
their position at the fort, and the commandant sent up a 
party of whites and Indians to rescue them. They 
brought with them four light pike-poles. Going to the 
head of the Island, they exchanged salutations with the 
new Crusoes, and began preparations for their rescue. 
Two Indians volunteered to undertake the task. "They 
took le^ve of all their friends as if they were going to the 
death." Each Indian rescuer, according to the wondrous 
fable, took two pike-poles and waded across the channel 
to the island, gave each of the Crusoes a pike-pole, and 
then the four waded back to the mainland, where they 
were joyfully received by their anxious, waiting friends, 
after having been "nine days on the island." Remem- 
bering that the water in mid-channel is twelve feet deep, 
with a twelve-mile current, we must concede this to be the 



History and Incidents, 8 1 

most marvellous of all aquatic achievements. If the 
illustrious Munchausen had been a reality and not a 
fiction, and if he could have appeared either in the flesh 
or out of it to the credulous Swede after he had finished 
this recital, we cannot doubt that he would, in the most 
graceful manner, have surrendered his sceptre — probably 
a long bow — to his new disciple. And yet so grave a 
work as the ^^ Encyclopedia Brittanica," in the article on 
'^ Niagara Falls, ^' gives a large space to this extraordinary 
narrative. 

In 1 817 Judge Porter built the first bridge to Goat 
Island, about forty rods above the present bridge. In the 
following spring the large cakes of ice from the river 
above, not being sufficiently broken up by the short por- 
tion of rapids through which they passed, and being 
hurled against the bridge with terrific force, it was 
mostly carried away. With the courage and enterprise 
of his race — of course he was a New Englander — the next 
season he constructed another bridge lower down, on the 
present site, rightly judging that the ice would be so much 
broken up before reaching it, as to be harmless. That 
bridge, with constant repairs and one almost entire re- 
newal, stood firm in its place until the year 1856, when it 
was removed to make room for the present iron bridge. 
The old piers were much enlarged and strengthened, and 
also raised about three feet higher to receive the new 
bridge. As nearly every stranger inquires how the first 
bridge was carried over the turbulent waters, a brief de- 
scription of the process may be acceptable. First a strong 
bulkhead was built in the shallow water next to the shore ; 



82 Niagara. 

a solid backing was put in behind this, and the upper sur- 
face properly graded and well floored with plank. Strong 
rollers were placed parallel with the stream, and fastened 
to the floor. In the old forest then standing near by^ 
were many noble oaks of diflerent sizes and great length. 
A number of these were felled and hewed ' tapering' as it 
was termed, so that, when finished they were about 
eighteen inches square at the butt, fifteen at the top and 
eighty feet long. Through the small ends were bored 
large auger-holes. These sticks were placed, as required, 
on the rollers, at right angles to the stream, the small 
ends over the water, and the shore ends heavily weighted 
down. The first stick being properly placed, levers were 
applied to the rollers and the stick run out until the front 
end reached an eddy in the water. Then another similar 
stick was run out in like manner parallel to the first, and 
about six feet from it. A few light, strong planks were 
placed across and made fast. Two men were provided 
each with strong, iron-pointed pike-stafi*s, each stafl" having 
in its upper end a hole through which was drawn some 
ten feet of new rope. Thus provided, they walked out on 
the timbers, drove their iron pikes down among the 
stones and tied them fast to the timbers. Thus the whole 
problem was solved. Around these pike-stafls the first 
pier was built and filled with stone. Then other timbers 
were run out, all were planked over and the first span was 
completed. All the remaining spans were finished in the 
same way. 

After the war, the great Indian chief and orator. Red 
Jacket, occasionally visited Judge and General Porter — 



History and Incidents. 8;5: 

the latter then living at Black Rock. The former told 
this anecdote of the Chief. He visited the Falls while the 
mechanics were stretching the timbers across the rapids 
for the second bridge. He sat for a long time on a pile 
of plank watching their operations. His mind seemed to 
be busy both with the past and the present, reflecting 
upon the grand empire his race once possessed, and in- 
tensely conscious of the fact that it was theirs no longer. 
Apparently mortified, and vexed that its pale-face owners 
should so successfully develop and improve it, he rose 
from his seat and uttering the well-known Indian gut^ 
tural " Ugh, Ugh,'^ he added, and repeated " d — n Yankee, 
d — n Yankee /' then gathering his blanket-cloak around 
him, with his usual dignity and downcast eyes, he slowly 
walked away, and never returned to the spot. 

Before parting with ihe distinguished Chief, we may be 
permitted to repeat from the late General Porter, two 
other characteristic anecdotes of him. He lived not far 
from Buffalo, on the Seneca Reservation, and frequently 
visited the late General Wadsworth, at Geneseo. Indeed 
his visits came to be somewhat perplexing, for the great 
Chief must be entertained by the host of the establish^ 
ment wherever he went. He had little affinity for juniors^, 
however distinguished they might be. He condescended 
to associate only with the men of mark, with whom he 
had come in contact during the exciting scenes of his 
active life. 

Of course he was a '* teetotaler^^ only in one way. 
When he got a glass of good " liquor '' he drank the 
whole of it. He was very fond of the rich apple-juice of 



-84 Niagara, - 

the Geneseo orchards, of which his absorbing capacity 
was quite wondrous. Having repeated his visits to 
Gen. Wadsworth at one time, with rather inconvenient 
frequency, and coming one day when the General 
saw that he had been drinking pretty freely some 
where else, he concluded he would not offer him the usual 
refreshments. In due time, therefore, he rose and excus- 
ed himself As he was leaving the room the orator said, 
'' General hear !" " Well what. Red Jacket," to which he 
replied with great gravity, " General, when I get home to 
my people, and they ask me how your cider tasted^ what 
shall I tell them ?'' Of course he won his '^pint^^ and re- 
peated it. 

His determined and constant opposition to the sale of 
the lands belonging to the Indians is well known. At 
the Council held at Buffalo Creek, in 181 1, he was select- 
ed by the Indians to answer the propositions of a New 
York Land Company to buy more land. The Indians 
refused to sell, although, as usual, the company only 
wanted " a small tract." To illustrate the system, after 
the speech-making was over. Red Jacket placed half-a- 
dozen Indians on a log, which lay near by. They did 
not sit very close together but had plenty of room. He 
then took a white man who wanted " a small tract," and 
making the Indians at one end '^ move up," he put the 
white man beside them. Then he brought another " small 
tract '^ white man, and making the aborigines '^ move 
up " once more, the Indian on the end was obliged to rise 
from the log, He repeated this process until but one of 
the original occupants was left on the log. Then sudden- 



History and Incidents. 85 

ly he shoved him off, put a white man in his place, and 
turning to the land agent said : " See what one small 
tract means ; white man all^ Indian nothing'^ 

The strong round tower, which stands near Goat Islands- 
was built in 1823, of stones gathered in the vicinity. It is 
forty-five feet high, and twelve feet in diameter at the 
base. The hardness and durability of these stones are 
abundantly proved, since the storms and exposure of half 
a century have made no impression upon them. Yet be- 
fore the end of the next century the tower itself may be 
precipitated into the gulf below. 

The Biddle Staircase was named from Mr. Nicholas 
Biddle, of Philadelphia, who contributed a sum of money 
towards its construction. It was erected in 1829. The 
shaft is eighty feet high, and firmly fastened to the rock. 
The stairs are spiral, winding around it from top to bot- 
tom. Near the foot of these stairs, at the water's edge, 
the distinguished Beotian, Mr. Samuel Patch, who wish- 
ed to demonstrate to the world that *' some things could 
be done as well as others," set up a ladder one hundred 
feet high, from which he made two leaps into the water 
below. Going thence to Rochester, he took another leap 
near the Genesee Falls, which proved to be his last. It 
was for him a leap-year that never returned. 

The depth of water on the Horse-shoe Fall is a subject 
of speculation with every visitor. It was quite correctly 
determined in 1827. In the autumn of that year, the ship 
Michigan^ having been condemned as unseaworthy, was 
purchased by a few individuals, and sent over the Falls. 
Her hull was eighteen feet deep. It filled going down 



86 Niagara, 

the rapids, went over the Horse-shoe Fall with some 
water above the deck, indicating that there must have 
been at least twenty feet above the rock. This voyage 
of the Michigan was an event of the day. A glowing 
hand-bill, charged with such pyrotechny of types and 
tropes as would be a credit to the sensational literature of 
the present time, was issued, announcing that " The Pirate 
Michigan^ with a cargo of furious animals,'' would " pass 
the great rapids and the Falls of Niagara,^' on the " eighth 
of September, 1827." She would sail "through the 
white-tossing and deep-rolling rapids of Niagara, and 
down its grand precipice into the basin below.'' Enter- 
tainment was promised " for all who may visit the Falls 
on the present occasion, which will, for its novelty and 
the remarkable spectacle it will present, be unequalled in 
the annals of infernal navigation." Considering that the 
Falls could only be reached by land carriage, the gather- 
ing of people was very large. The voyage was success- 
fully made, and the "cargo of live animals" duly 
deposited in the " basin below," except a bear, which left 
the ship near the centre of the rapids, got to shore and 
was recaptured. 

Two enterprising individuals made arrangements to 
supply the people assembled on the Island with refresh- 
ments. They had an ample spread of tables and an 
abundant supply of provisions. As there was much de- 
lay in getting the vessel down the river, the people got 
both impatient and hungry. To relieve both they took 
their place at the tables. When their appetites were 
nearly satisfied, notice was given that the ship was com- 



History and Incidents, 87 

ing, whereupon they departed hurriedly, forgetting to 
leave the equivalent half dollar for the benefit of the pur- 
veyors, and the places which knew them knew them no 
more forever. 

In after years, one of the proprietors of this unexpected 
*^ free lunch '' — the late Gen. Whitney — established here 
one of the best hotels in the country, and left his heirs an 
ample fortune. 

A few geese in the cargo were only badly confused by 
their unusual plunge, and were afterwards picked up from 
boats. It was noticed as being a little singular that geese 
which went over the Falls in the Pirate Michigan were 
for sale at extravagant prices all the next season. By 
some new method of expanding a finite quantity into an 
infinite series, the modest quartette which actually went 
over was increased to more than a hundred. 

Another condemned vessel of about 500 tons burden, 
the Detroit^ which had belonged to Commodore Perry's 
victorious fleet, was sent down the rapids in 184 1. A 
large concourse of people assembled from all parts of the 
country to witness the spectacle. Her rolling and plung- 
ing in the rapids were fearful, until about midway of them 
she stuck fast on a bar, where she lay until knocked to 
pieces by the ice. From Baron La Hontan (ante) we 
know that the Indians went on the water, just below the 
Falls, in their canoes, to gather the game which had been 
drawn over them. For more than a hundred years there 
has been a ferry of skiff and yawl boats at this point, and 
in all that time not one serious apcident has happened. 



88 Niagara. 



CHAPTER XI. 

JOEL R. ROBINSON. 

First and Last Navigator of the Rapids — Rescue of Chapin — 
Of Allen — Of property from canal boat — Takes the ^^ Maid 
of the Mist ^' through the Whirlpool — Description of the 
voyage — His companions — Effect upon Robinson — Bio- 
graphical notice — His body mouldering in an unmarked 
grave — The heroines of Lonestone and Newport, Grace 
Darling and Ida Lewis. 

THE history of the navigation of the Rapids of the 
Niagara may be very appropriately concluded in 
this chapter, which is devoted to a notice of the remark- 
able man who inaugurated it, who had no rival and has 
left no successor in it — Mr. Joel R. Robinson. 

In the summer of 1838, while some extensive repairs 
were being made on the main bridge to Goat Island, a 
mechanic named Chapin fell from the lower side of it 
into the rapids about ten rods from the Bath Island 
shore. The swift current bore him toward the first 
small island lying below the bridge. Knowing how to 
swim he made a desperate and successful effort to reach 
it. It is hardly more than thirty feet square, and is 
covered with cedars and hemlocks. Saved from drown- 
ing he seemed likely to fall a victim to the slow torture of 
starvation. All thoughts were then turned to Robinson, 
and not in vain. He launched his light red skiff from the 




>v 



Joel R, Robinson. 89 

foot of Bath Island, picked his way cautiously and skilfully 
through the Rapids to the little island, took Chapin in 
and brought him safely to the shore, much to the relief 
of the spectators, who testified their appreciation of 
Robinson's service by a moderate contribution. 

In the summer of 1841, a Mr. Allen started for Chip- 
pawa in a boat just before sunset. Being anxious to get 
across before dark he plied his oars with such vigor that 
one of them was broken when he was about opposite the 
middle Sister. With the remaining oar he tried to make 
the head of Goat Island. The current, however, set too 
strongly towards the great Canadian Rapids, and his only 
hope was to reach the outer Sister. Nearing this and not 
being able to run his boat on to it he sprang out, and, 
being a good swimmer, by a vigorous effort succeeded in 
getting on to it. Certain of having a lonely if not a quiet 
and pleasant night, and being the fortunate possessor 
of two stray matches, he lighted a fire and solaced him- 
self with his thoughts and his pipe. Next morning taking 
ofif his red flannel shirt, he raised a signal of distress. 
Toward noon the unusual smoke and the red flag 
attracted attention. The situation was soon ascertained, 
and Robinson informed of it. Not long after noon the 
little red skiff was carried across Goat Island and launched 
in the channel just below the Moss Islands. Robinson 
then pulled himself across to the foot of the middle Sister 
and tried in vain to find a point where he could cross to 
the outer one. Approaching darkness compelled him to 
suspend operations. He rowed back to Goat Island, 
got some refreshments, returned to the middle Sister, 

G 



90 Niagara, 

threw them across to Allen, and then left him to his 
second night of solitude. The next day Robinson took 
with him two long, light, strong cords, with a properly 
shaped piece of lead weighing about a pound. Tying 
the lead to one of the cords he threw it across to Allen. 
Robinson then fastened the other end of Allen's cord 
to the bow of the skiff \ then attaching his own cord to 
the skiff also, he shoved it off. Allen drew it to himself, 
got into it, pushed off, and Robinson drew him to where 
he stood on the middle island. Then seating Allen in 
the stem of the skiff he returned across the Rapids to 
Goat Island, where both were assisted up the bank by 
the spectators, and the little craft too, which seemed to 
be almost as much of a hero and as great a favorite with 
the crowd as Robinson himself. 

This was the second individual rescued by Robinson 
from islands which had been considered wholly inacces- 
sible. It is no exaggeration to say that there was not 
another man on the globe that could have saved Chapin 
and Allen as he did. His laurels as Navigator of the 
Rapids can never fade nor decay. They are made per- 
ennial by the generous motives and humane acts through 
which they were won. 

In the summer of 1855 a canal boat, with two men 
and a dog in it, was discovered in the strong current near 
Grass Island. The men, finding they could not save 
the large boat, took to their small one, and got ashore, 
leaving the dog to his fate. The abandoned craft floated 
down and lodged on the rocks on the south side of Goat 
Island and about twenty rods above the ledge over which 



yoel R, Robinson, 91 

the Rapids make the first perpendicular break. There were 
in it a watch, a gun, and some articles of clothing. The 
owner offered Robinson a liberal salvage if he would 
recover the property. Taking one of his sons with him, 
he started the little red skiff from the head of the 
hydraulic canal, half a mile above the Island, shot across 
the American channel, and ran directly to the boat. 
Holding the skiff to it himself, the young man got on 
board and secured the valuables. The dog had escaped 
during the night. Leaving the canal boat, he ran down 
the ledge between the second and third Moss Islands, 
and thence to Goat Island. On going over the ledge 
he had occasion to exercise that quickness of apprehen- 
sion and presence of mind for which he was so noted 
The water was rather lower than he had calculated, and 
on reaching the top of the ledge the bottom of the skiff 
near the bow struck the rock. Instantly he sprang to the 
stern, freed the skiff and made the descent safely. If the 
stern had been swung athwart the current, inevitable 
wreck would have followed. 

In the year 1846 a small steamer was built in the 
eddy just above the railway Suspension Bridge to runup 
to the Falls. She was very appropriately named — The 
Maid of the Mist. Her engine was rather weak, but she 
safely accomplished the trip. As, however, she took 
passengers aboard only from the Canada side, she did 
little more than pay expenses. In 1854 a larger, better 
boat, with a more powerful engine, the new Maid of the 
Misty was put on the route, and many thousands of per- 
sons made this most exciting and impressive tour under 



92 Niagara. 

the Falls. The admiration which the visitor felt as he 
passed quietly along under the American Fall was 
changed into awe when he began to feel the mighty pulse 
of the great deep just below the tower ; then swung 
around into the white foam directly in front of the Horse- 
shoe and saw the sky of waters falling toward him. And 
he seemed to be lifted on wings as he sailed swiftly down 
on the flying stream through a baptism of spray. To many 
persons there was a fascination about it that induced 
them to make the trip every time they had an oppor- 
tunity to do so. Owing to some change in her appoint- 
ments, which confined her to the Canadian shore for the 
reception of passengers, she became unprofitable. Her 
owner having decided to leave the place wished to sell 
her as she lay at her dock. This he could not do, but 
had an ofier of something more than half of her cost, if 
he would deliver her at Niagara, opposite the Fort. This 
he decided to do, after consultation with Robinson, 
who had acted as her captain and pilot on her trips 
under the Falls. The boat required for her navigation 
an engineer, who also acted as fireman, and a pilot. On 
her pleasure trips she had a clerk in addition to these. 
Mr. Robinson agreed to act as pilot for the fearful voyage, 
and the engineer, Mr. Jones, consented to go with him. 
A courageous machinist, Mr. Mclntyre, volunteered to 
share the risk with them. They put her in complete 
trim, removing from deck and hold all superfluous articles. 
Notice was given of the time for starting, and a large 
number of people assembled to see the fearful plunge, no 
one expecting to see either boat or crew again, after they 



Joel R, Robinson, 93 

should leave the dock. This dock, as has been before 
stated, was just above the railway Suspension Bridge, at the 
place where she was built, and where she was laid up in 
the winter ; that, too, being the only place where she 
could lie without danger of being crushed by the ice. 
Twenty rods below this eddy the water plunges sharply 
down into the head of the crooked, tumultuous rapid 
which we have before noticed, as reaching from the bridge 
to the Whirlpool. At the Whirlpool the danger of being 
drawn under was most to be apprehended; in the Rapids 
of being turned over or knocked to pieces. From the 
Whirlpool to Lewiston is one wild, turbulent rush and 
whirl of water without a square foot of smooth surface in 
the whole distance. 

About three o'clock in the afternoon of June 15, 1867, 
the engineer took his place in the hold, and, knowing that 
their flitting would be short at the longest, and might be 
only the preface to a swift destruction, set his steam-valve 
at the proper gauge, and awaited — not without anxiety — 
the tinkling signal that should start them on their flying 
voyage. Mclntyre joined Robinson at the wheel on the 
upper-deck. Self-possessed, and with the calmness which 
results from undoubting courage and confidence, yet with 
the humility which recognizes all possibilities, with down- 
cast eyes and firm hands, Robinson took his place at the 
wheel and pulled the starting bell. With a shriek from 
her whistle and a white puff" from her escape pipe to take 
leave, as it were, of the multitude gathered on the shores 
and on the bridge, the boat ran up the eddy a short dis- 
tance, then swung around to the right, cleared the smooth 



94 Niagara. 

water and shot like an arrow into the rapid under the 
bridge. She took the outside curve of the rapid, and when 
a third of the way down it a jet of water struck against her 
rudder, a column dashed up under her starboard side, 
heeled her over, carried away her smoke-stack, started her 
overhang on that side, threw Robinson flat on his back 
and thrust Mclntyre against her starboard wheel-house 
with such force as to break it through. Every eye was 
fixed; every tongue was silent, and every looker-on 
breathed freer as she emerged from the fearful baptism, 
shook her wounded sides, slid into the whirlpool and for 
a moment rode again on an even keel. Robinson rose 
at once, seized the helm, set her to the right of the 
large pot in the pool, then turned her directly through 
the neck of it. Thence, after receiving another drenching 
from its combing waves, she dashed on without further 
accident to the quiet bosom of the river below Lewiston* 
Thus was accomplished the most remarkable and peril- 
ous voyage ever made by men. To look at the boat and 
the navigation she was to undertake no one would have 
predicted for it any other than a fatal termination. The 
boat was seventy-two feet long with seventeen feet breadth 
of beam and eight feet depth of hold, and carried an engine 
of an hundred horse power. In conversation with Robin- 
son after the voyage, he stated that the greater part of it 
was like what he had always imagined must be the swift 
sailing of a large bird in a downward flight ; that when 
the accident occurred the boat seemed to be struck from 
all directions at once ; that she trembled like a fiddle- 
string and felt as if she would crumble away and drop into 



Joel R. Robinson, 95 

atoms j that both he and Mclntyre were holding to the 
wheel with all their strength but produced no more effect 
than if they had been two flies; that he had no fear of 
striking the rocks, for he knew that the strongest suction 
must be in the deepest channel and that the boat must 
remain in that. Finding that Mclntyre was somewhat 
bewildered by excitement or by his fall as he rolled up by 
his side but did not rise, he quietly put his foot on his 
breast to keep him from rolling around the deck and thus 
finished the voyage. 

Poor Jones, imprisoned beneath the hatches before 
the glowing furnace, went down on his knees, as he 
related afterward, and although a more earnest prayer 
was never uttered and few that were shorter, still it seemed 
to him prodigiously long. To that prayer he thought 
they owed their salvation. 

The effect of this trip upon Robinson was decidedly 
marked. To it, as he lived but a few years afterward, his 
death was commonly attributed. But this was incorrect, 
since the disease which terminated his life was contracted 
at New Orleans at a later day. " He was," said Mrs. 
Robinson to the writer, " twenty years older when he 
came home that day than when he went out." He sank 
into his chair like a person overcome with weariness. He 
decided to abandon the water and advised his sons to 
venture no more about the rapids. Both his manner and 
appearance were changed. Calm and deliberate before, 
he became thoughtful and serious afterward. He had 
been borne, as it were, in the arms of a power so mighty 
that its impress was stamped on his features and on his 



96 Niagara, 

mind. Through a slightly opened door he had seen a 
vision which awed and subdued him. He became reve- 
rent in a moment. He grew venerable in an hour. 

Yet he had a strange, almost irrepressible desire to 
make this voyage immediately after the steamer was put 
on below the Falls. This wish was only increased when 
the first Maid of the Mist was superseded by the new and 
stancher one. He insisted that it could be made with 
safety and that it might be made a good pecuniary spec- 
ulation. 

He was a character, an original. Bom on the banks 
of the Connecticut, in the town of Springfield, Massachu- 
setts, it was in the beautiful reach of water which skirts 
that now fine city that he acquired his love of aquatic 
sports and exercises and his skill in them. He was nearly 
six feet high, with light chestnut hair, blue eyes and fair 
complexion. He was a kind-hearted man of equable 
temper, few words, cool, deliberate, decided ; lithe as a 
Gaul and gentle as a girl. To say that he was a man of 
^undaunted courage' would be to waste on him an expres- 
sion which is supposed to be fine and known to be strong. 
He had that calm, serene, supreme equanimity of tem- 
perament which fear could not reach nor disturb. He 
had none of the qualifications which would have fitted him 
to become a robber or a conspirator; he might have been, 
under right conditions, a quiet, willing martyr, and at last 
he bore patiently the wearying hours of slow decay which 
ended his life. Pecuniarily he had none of that covetous- 
nous which is idolatry. His love of nature and adven- 
ture was paramount to his love of money, and although 



Joel R, Robinson, 97 

his purse was never pinched \^ith poverty, yet it was never 
plethoric with abundance. Hence his virtues were not 
over-estimated by those with whom coin and success are 
convertible terms. 

He loved the water and was at home in it or on it, as he 
was a capital swimmer and a skilful oarsman. Especially 
he delighted in the Rapids of the Niagara. Kind and 
compassionate as he was by nature, he was almost glad 
when he heard that a fellow-creature was, in some way, 
entangled in the rapids, since it would give him an excuse, 
an opportunity to work in them and to help him. As he 
was not a boaster he made no superfluous exhibitions of 
his skill or courage, albeit he might occasionally indulge 
— and be indulged — in some mirthful manifestation of his 
good nature; as when on reaching Chapin's Island for his 
rescue he waved from one of its tallest cedars a green 
branch to the anxious spectators as if to assure and 
encourage them; and when he returned with his skiff 
half filled with cedar-sprigs which he distributed to the 
multitude when they raised his pet craft to their shoulders, 
with both Chapin and himself in it, and bore them in 
triumph through the village, while money tokens went in 
to replace the green ones as they came out. 

He neither provoked nor defied Providence, nor fool- 
ishly challenged the admiration of his fellow-men. But 
when the emergency arose for the proper exercise of his 
powers, when news came that some one was in trouble 
in the river, then he went to work with a calm and cheer- 
ful will which gave assurance of the best results. Beneath 
his quiet deliberation of manner there was concealed a 



98 Niagara. 

wonderful vigor both of resolution and nerve, as was 
amply testified by the dangers which he faced, and by the 
bend in his withy oar as he forced it through the water^ 
and the feathery spray which flashed from its blade when 
he lifted it to the surface. 

In all fishing and sailing parties his presence was indis- 
pensable with those who knew him. There are some of 
the best possible elements in the character of that man to 
whom children are instinctively attracted. He was a 
great favorite with children and women. The most timid 
no longer hesitated if Robinson was to go with the party. 
His quick eye saw everything it was necessary to see and 
his willing hand did all that it was necessary to do to 
secure the comfort and safety of the company. 

And yet a prophet is not without honor save in his 
own country. It is doubtful whether any except a very 
few of his neighbors know where his mortal remains are 
mouldering in an unmarked grave. The heroines of Lone- 
stone and Newport have been the worthy recipients of 
favors and testimonials well and nobly won. They per- 
formed their beneficent labor upon the storm-swept bil- 
lows of the ocean, where, if their heroic efforts had not 
been successful in saving others, they might possi- 
bly have saved themselves on the shoreward surging 
waves. Robinson went forth on a turbulent, unreturning 
flood where the slightest hesitancy in thought or act would 
have proved instantly fatal. Benevolent associations in 
different cities and countries bestow honor and rewards 
on those who, by unselfish efibrt and a noble courage, 
save the life of a fellow-being. This Robinson did 





«f4 




History and Incidents. 99 

repeatedly. Yet no word nor line nor stone commemo- 
rates his worthy deeds. 



CHAPTER XII. 

LOCAL HISTORY AND INCIDENTS. 

Fisher and Bear in Canoe — Frightful Experience in the Ice 
— Early Farming on the Niagara — Fruit Growing — Origi- 
nal Forest — Testimony of the Trees — First Hotel — Inter- 
national — General Whitney — Cataract House — Distin- 
guished Visitors — Carriage Road down the Canada Bank — 
Pavilion — Ontario House — Clifton House — Museum — 
Table and Termination Rocks — Burning Spring — Lundy^s 
Lane — Battle — Anecdotes. 

SOON after the war of 181 2, a fisherman — whose name 
we will call Fisher — on a certain day, went out 
upon the river about three miles above the Falls, and 
while anchored and fishing from his canoe, he saw a 
bear in the water making, very leisurely, for Nav}'' Island: 
Not understanding very thoroughly the nature and habits 
of the animal, thinking he would be a capital prize and 
having a spear in the canoe, he hoisted anchor and started 
in pursuit. As the canoe drew near, the bear turned to 
pay his respects to its occupant. Fisher, with his spear 
made a desperate thrust at him. Quicker and more 
deftly than the most expert fencer could have done, the 
quadruped parried the blow and, disarming his assailant, 
knocked the spear more than ten feet from the canoe,. 



lOO Niagara. 

Fisher then seized a paddle and belabored the bear over 
his head and on his paws, as he placed the latter on the 
^ide of the canoe, and drew himself in. The now fright- 
ened fisherman, not knowing how to swim, was in a most 
uncomfortable quandary. He felt greatly relieved there- 
fore, when the animal deliberately sat himself down facing 
him in the bow of the canoe. Resolving in his own mind 
that he would generously resign the whole canoe to the 
creature as soon as he should reach the land, he raised 
his paddle and began to pull vigorously shore-ward, 
especially as the Rapids lay just below him and the Falls 
were roaring most ominously. But much to his surprise 
^s soon as he began to paddle Bruin began to growl, and 
as he repeated his stroke, the occupant of the bow raised 
his note of disapproval an octave higher, and at the same 
time made a motion as if he would "go for** him. Fisher 
-had no desire to cultivate a closer intimacy and so stopped 
tpaddling. Bruin then serenely contemplated the land- 
-tscape, in the direction of the island. Fisher was also 
intensely interested in the same scene, still more intensely 
impressed with their constant and insidious approach to 
the Rapids, but most of all exercised as to the manner of 
his own escape. He tried the paddle again. But the 
tyrant of the quarter-deck again emphatically objected 
and as he was master of the situation and fully resolved 
not to resign the command of that craft until the termina- 
tion of the voyage, there was no alternative but submis- 
sion. Still, the Rapids were frightfully near and some- 
thing must be done. He gave a tremendous shout. 
But Bruin was not in a musical mood and vetoed that 



History and Incidents. lor 

with as much emphasis as he had done the paddUng- 
Then he turned his eyes on Fisher quite interestedly as if 
he were calculating the best method of dissecting him. 
The situation was fast becoming something more than 
painful. Man and bear in opposite ends of the canoe 
floating, — ^not exactly double — but together to inevitable 
destruction. But every suspense has an end. The single 
shout, or something else, had called the attention of the 
neighbors to the canoe. They came to the rescue and an 
old settler, with a musket which he had used in the war, 
insinuated a charge of buck-shot into Bruin's internal 
arrangements which induced him to take to the water^ 
after which he was soon taken captive and dead to the 
shore. He weighed over three hundred pounds. 

A son of the settler who shot the bear, had a frightful 
experience in the river many years afterward. He was 
engaged in Canada in the business of buying saw-logs for 
the American market. Coming from the woods down to 
Chippewa one cold day in December, at a time when con- 
siderable quantities of strong, thin cakes of ice were float- 
ing in the river, he took a flat-bottom skiff to row across- 
to his home. This he did without apprehension as he 
had been bom and brought up on the banks of the 
Niagara, understood it well, and was also a strong, reso- 
lute man. As he drew near the foot of Navy Islands 
intending to take the schute between it and Buckhom 
Island, two large cakes between which he was sailing,, 
were suddenly closed together and cut the bottom of his 
skifi" square ofl". Just above the upper cake on which his 
bottomless skiff then was floating, there was a second 



I02 Niagara. 

large cake at a little distance from it, and beyond this a 
strip of water which washed the shore of Navy Island. 
In less time than it has taken to write this, he sprang on 
to the first piece of ice, ran across it with a sort of maniac 
speed, cleared the first space of water at a single leap, ran 
across the next cake of ice, jumped with all his might and 
landed in the icy water within a rod of the shore, to which 
he swam. He was soon after warming and drying him- 
self before the rousing fire of the only occupant of the 
island. 

His father had a fine farm on the bank of the river, 
which he cultivated with much care. But before the 
drainage of the country was completed the land was 
decidedly wet. A friend from the east who made him a 
call found him ploughing. The water stood in the bottom 
of the furrows, as he turned over the rich, heavy soil, and 
his visitor remarked that it was "rather wet ploughing." 
^^ Oh no ! this is not bad," said the farmer. "What do 
you call bad?" asked the New Englander. "When I 
cannot see anything of my plough except the handles," 
was the response. 

But agriculture has been progressive since those days. 
It is now almost a fine art instead of a mere pursuit. 
And no where north of the equator is there a climate and 
soil so genial and favorable for the growth of certain kinds 
of fruit, especially the apple and the peach, as are those 
of Niagara County. Connoisseurs claim that they can 
•decide by the peculiar consistency of the pulp and by its 
flavor and bouquet^ on which side of the Genesee river any 
tested apple was grown. It is said that the winter apples 



History and Incidents. 103 

of Niagara are as well known and as greatly distinguished 
above all others of their kind on the docks of Liverpool 
as is Sea Island Cotton, above all other grades of that 
plant. The delicious little russet, known as the Fomme 
Gris^ with its fine aromatic flavor when ripe, grows no 
where else to such perfection as along the Niagara river. 
In 1825, at the grand celebration held to commemorate 
the completion of the Erie Canal, the late Judge Porter 
made the first shipment east of apples raised in Niagara 
County. It consisted of two barrels, one of which was 
sent to the Corporation of the city of Troy, and the other 
to that of New York. They were duly received and 
honored. From this small beginning the fruit trade has 
grown up to the yearly value of more than a million of 
dollars for Niagara County alone. 

In reference to the forest which once covered this 
country, a very erroneous impression is prevalent as to its 
age. Poets and Romancers have been in the habit of 
speaking of these ** primeval forests " as though they 
might have been bushes when Nahor and Abraham were 
infants. But this is a great error. Since the discovery 
of the country but one tree has been found that w^as 
eight hundred years old. This is mentioned by Sir 
Charles Lyall as having grown out of one of the ancient 
mounds near Marietta, Ohio. But the great majority 
of them were not over three hundred. The testimony 
of the trees concerning the past, is not quite so abundant 
as that of the rocks, but that of one tree grown in central 
New York is of a remarkable character. It was a white 
oak, which grew in the rich valley of the Clyde river, 



104 Niagara. 

about one mile west of Lyons' Court House, and was cut 
down in the year 1837. The body made a stick of tim- 
ber eighty feet long, which before sawing was about five 
feet in diameter. It was cut into short logs and sawed 
up. From the centre of the butt log was sawn a piece 
about eight by twelve inches. At the butt end of this 
piece, the saw laid bare, without marring them, some old 
scars made by an axe or some other sharp instrument. 
These scars were perfectly distinct and their character 
equally unmistakable. They were made, apparently 
when the young tree was about six inches in diameter. 
Outside of these scars, there were counted four hundred 
and sixty distinct rings, each ring marking with unerring 
certainty one year's growth of the tree. It follows that 
this chopping was done in 1374, or one hundred and 
eighteen years before the first voyage of Columbus across 
the Atlantic. Hence one of the reasons for speaking of 
the rediscovered continent, in the first part of this work. 

It has been questioned whether the rings shown in a 
cross section of a tree, can be relied upon to determine 
truly the number of years it has been growing. A singular 
confirmation of the correctness of this method of counting 
was furnished some years since. 

In the latter part of the last century the late Judge 
Porter surveyed a large tract of land lying east of the 
Genesee river, known as *^ The Gore.'' Some thirty-five 
years afterward it became necessary to re-survey one of 
its lines, and recourse was had to the original surveys. 
Most of the forest, through which the first line had been 
run, was cleared off and such trees as had been " blazed " 



History and Incidents, 105 

as line-trees, had overgrown the scars. One tree was 
found which was declared to be an original line-tree. On 
cutting into it carefully the old " blaze^' was brought to 
light, and, on counting the rings outside of it, they were 
found to correspond with the number of years which had 
elapsed since the first survey. 

One of the three small buildings at Niagara which 
escaped the flames of 18 14, was a log cabin about thirty 
by forty feet in its dimensions, that stood in the centre of 
the front of the International block In the latter part of 
18 1 5 the inhabitants returned and the late General P. 
Whitney put a board addition to the log house and opened 
the first hotel. From that has grown up the present 
International. On the opposite side of the street was a 
small house, a story and a half high of which Judge Porter 
took possession, and to which he built an addition. Then, 
as now, there were occasionally more visitors than the 
hotel could accommodate, and the neighbors assisted in 
entertaining them. Judge Porter did this frequently, and 
among his guests were President Munroe, Marshal Grou- 
chy, Gen. La Fayette, Gen. Brown, Gen. Scott, Judge 
Spencer, a Prussian Envoy, and other distinguished 
strangers. 

The first building erected on the 'ground where the 
"Cataract'' now stands, was of a later date — 1824 — a frame 
house about fifty feet square. It was purchased by Gen. 
Whitney in 1826 and formed the nucleus of the great pile 
which constitutes the present Cataract House. 

In 1829 the carriage road down the bank to the Ferry 
on the Canada side was made. For some years previous 

H 



io6 Niagara. 

the principal hotel at the Falls was also on that side. It 
was called the PaviHon and stood on the high bank just 
above the Horse Shoe Fall. It commanded a grand view 
of the river above and almost a bird's eye view of the 
Falls and the head of the chasm below. The principal 
stage route from Buffalo was likewise on that side, and the 
Register of the Pavilion contained the names of most of 
the noted visitors of the period. But the erection of the 
Cataract House and the establishing of stage routes on 
the American side drew away much of its patronage, and 
finally, on the completion of the first half of the Clifton 
House, in 1833, it was quite abandoned. A few years 
later the Ontario House was built about half way between 
the Clifton and the Horse-Shoe Fall toward which it 
fronted. There was not sufficient business to support 
it and after standing unoccupied for some years it was 
finally burned. 

«The Clifton was greatly enlarged and improved by Mr. 
S. Zimmerman in 1865. The Amusement Hall and 
several cottages were built and gas works erected. The 
grounds were handsomely graded and adorned, and, on 
account of its pleasant and quiet location, it has been 
quite a favorite with the public. 

Near the foot of the Table Rock is the Museum, its 
valuable collection being the result of several years' labor 
by its proprietor, Mr. Thomas Bamett It contains 
several thousand specimens from the animal and mineral 
kingdom, and as the galleries are so arranged as to 
represent a forest scene, they are presented in a very 
attractive manner. There are also several ancient 



History and Incidents. 107 

Egyptians in the building, but as they are in a chrysalis 
state — mummies — it will probably be a long time before 
they will be able to see the great Cataract. 

Just above the Museum the visitor steps on to what 
remains of the famous Table Rock. It was once a bare, 
rock pavement about fifteen rods long and about five rods 
wide, about fifty of its width projecting beyond its base 
at the bottom of the lime-stone stratum nearly one hundred 
feet below. Remembering this fact we can more readily 
credit the probable truth of the statement made by 
Father Hennepin — which we have before noticed — that 
the projection on the American side in 1682, when he 
returned from his first tour to the west, was so great that 
four coaches could drive abreast under it. On top of the 
debris below the bank lies the path by which Termina- 
tion Rock, under the western end of the Horse-shoe, is 
reached. It is a path which few who are able neglect to 
follow. 

The Table itself has always been and must continue 
to be a favorite resort for visitors. The combined view 
of all the Falls and the chasm below as well as the rapids 
above is finer, more extensive here than from any other 
point. Moreover, the nearness to the great Cataract is 
more sensibly felt, the communion with it is deeper and 
more intimate than it can be any where else. The view 
from this point can be most pleasantly and satisfactorily 
taken in the afternoon when the spectator has the sun 
behind him and can look at his leisure and with unvexed 
eyes at the brilliant scene before him. However long he 
may tarry he will find new pleasure in each return to it. 



io8 Niagara. 

Two miles above, following around the bend of the 
Oxbow toward Chippawa,and down near the water's edge,is 
the Burning Spring. The water is impregnated with 
sulphurated hydrogen gas and is in a constant state of 
mild ebulition. The gas is perpetually rising to the sur- 
face of the water and when a lighted match is applied it 
burns with an intermittent flame. If however, a tub with 
an iron tube in the centre of its bottom is placed over the 
spring a constant stream of gas passes through it. On 
being lighted it burns constantly with a pale blue, waver- 
ing flame which possesses but little illuminating or heating 
power. The drive is a pleasant one, affording a fine view 
of the Oxbow Rapids and islands and the noble river 
above. 

A mile and a quarter west of Table Rock is the 
Lundy's Lane battle-ground. On the crown of the hill, 
where the severest struggle occurred, are two rival 
pagodas challenging the tourist's attention. From the 
top of each he has a rare outlook over a broad level 
champaign relieved on its northern horizon by the top of 
Brock's Monument and on its south-eastern by the City 
of Buffalo and Lake Erie. 

The obliging cicerone of either tower will enlighten 
his hearers with dexterous volubility and, according as he 
is certain of the nationality of his listeners, will the Stars 
and Stripes wave in triumph, or the Cross of Saint George 
float in glory, over the bloody and hard fought field. If 
he cannot feel sure of his listeners' habitat, like Justice, he 
will hold an even balance and be blind withal. 

It was the writer's privilege to go over the field on a 



History and Incidents. 109 

pleasant June day with Generals Scott and Porter, and to 
learn from them its stirring incidents. General Scott 
pointed out the location of th.e famous battery on the 
British left, which made such havoc with his brave bri- 
gade, and in taking which the gallant Miller converted 
his modest " I'll try, Sir '' into a triumphant " It is done." 
The General also found the tree under which, faint from 
his bleeding wound, he sat down to rest, placing its pro- 
tecting boll between his back and the British bullets, as 
he leaned against it. Plucking a small wild flower grow- 
ing near it, he presented it to one of the ladies of the 
party, telling her that " it grew in soil once nourished 
by his blood." 

General Porter showed us where, with his volunteers 
and Indians he broke through the woods on the British 
right, just as Miller had carried the troublesome battery, 
thus aiding to win the most obstinate and bloody fight of 
the war. Its hard-won trophies, however, were too easily 
lost, as by some misunderstanding or neglect of orders, 
the proper guard around the field was not maintained, 
and, in the darkness proverbially intense just before day, 
the British returned to the field and quietly removed most 
of the guns. So our English friends claim it was a drawn 
battle. 

Nearly half a century later a dinner was given at 
Queenston by our Canadian friends, to signalize the com- 
pletion of the Lewiston Suspension Bridge. On this oc- 
casion a British-Canadian officer, the late Major Wood- 
ruff, of St. Davids's, who served with his regiment during 
the war, was called upon by the Chairman, the late Sir 



I lo ^ Niagara. 

Allan McNabb, to follow, in response to a toast, the late 
Colonel Porter, only son of General Porter. In a mirth- 
ful reference to the stirring events of the war he alluded 
to the British retreat after the battle of Chippawa, and con- 
densing the opposing forces into two personal pronouns, 
one representing General Porter and the other himself, 
turning to Colonel Porter he said, " Yes, Sir, I remember 
well the movmg events of that day, and how sharp he was 
after me. But, Sir, he was balked in his purpose, for 
although he won the victory I won the race^ and so we 
were even." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

LOCAL HISTORY AND INCIDENTS. 

Incidents — Fall of Table Rock — Remarkable phenomenon 
in river — Consequences — Driving and lumbering on the 
Rapids — Capture of a large turtle — Points of Compass — 
First view of Falls — Disappointment — Fall, seen from 
below — Lunar Bow — Golden spray — Gull Island and 
gulls — Highest water ever known — Performance of a fish 
hawk — Of an eagle — Hermit of the Falls. 

OF incidents, curious, comic and tragic connected 
with the locality, the catalogue is long, but we must 
make our recital of them brief 

We have before referred to Professor Kalm's notice of 
the fall of a portion of Table Rock previous to 1750. 
Authentic accounts of like events are the following : In 
1818 a mass one hundred and sixty feet long by thirty 



History and Incidents. in 

wide; in 1828 and '29 two smaller masses : also in 1828 
there went down in the centre of the Horse-Shoe a huge 
mass of which the top area was estimated at half an acre. 
If this estimate was correct it would show an abrasion 
equivalent to nearly one foot from the whole surface of 
the Canada Fall. In April, 1843, ^ mass of rock and 
earth about thirty-five feet long and six feet wide fell from 
the middle of Goat Island. In 1847 there was just north 
of the Biddle Stairs, a slide of boulders, earth and gravel 
with a small portion of the bed-rock, the whole mass 
being about forty feet long and ten feet wide. About 
every third return of spring has increased the abrasion at 
these two points. At the first named point more than 
twenty feet in width has disappeared with the whole of the 
road crossing the island. From the latter point, which 
was a favorite one from which to look at the Horse-shoe 
Fall, the seats provided for visitors and the trees which 
shaded them have fallen. 

On the 2Sth of June, 1850, occurred the great down- 
fall which reduced Table Rock to a narrow bench along 
the bank. The portion which fell was one immense solid 
rock two hundred feet long, sixty feet wide and one 
hundred feet deep where it separated from the bank. The 
noise of the crash was heard like muffled thunder for 
miles around. Fortunately it fell at noonday when but 
few people were out, and no lives were lost. The driver 
of an omnibus who had taken off his horses for their 
mid-day feed, and was washing his vehicle, felt the pre- 
liminary cracking and escaped, the vehicle itself being 
plunged into the gulf below. 



112 Niagara. 

In 1850 a canal boat that became detached from a raft 
went down the Canadian rapids, turned broadside across 
the river before reaching the Falls, struck amidships 
against a rock projecting up from the bottom and lodged. 
It remained there more than a year and when it went 
down took with it a piece of the rock apparently about 
ten feet wide and forty feet long. At the foot of Goat 
Island some smaller masses have fallen and three quite 
extensive earth slides have occurred. 

In the spring of 1852 a triangular mass, the vertex of 
which was just beyond or south of the tower, while its 
altitude of more than forty feet lay along the shore of the 
south comer of Goat Island, fell in the night with the 
usual grinding crash. And with it fell some isolated 
rocks which lay on the brink of the precipice in front of 
the tower, and from which its name was derived. Be- 
fore the tower was built some person looking at the 
rocks from the shore, suggested that they appeared like 
huge terrapins sunning themselves on the edge of the 
falL A few days after the fall the triangular mass, a 
huge column of rock an hundred feet high, about four- 
teen feet by twelve, and flat on the top, large enough 
for a Cleopatra^s darning needle, became separated 
from the bank and settled down perpendicularly until 
its top was about ten feet below the surface rock. It 
stood thus about four years, when it gradually began 
to settle, as the shale and stone were disintegrated be- 
neath it, and finally tumbled over on to the rocks be- 
low, furnishing the illustration of the manner in which we 
suppose the rocks once accumulated below the Whirl- 



History and Incidents. 113 

pool must have been broken down. In the spring of 
187 1 a portion of the west side of the sharp angle of the 
Horse-Shoe, apparently about ten by thirty feet, went 
down, producing a decided change in the curve. 

On the 29th of March, 1848, the river presented a re- 
markable phenomenon. There is no record of a similar 
one nor has it been observed since. The winter had 
been intensely cold, and the ice formed on Lake Erie was 
very thick. This was loosened around the shores by the 
warm days of the early spring. During the day a stiif 
easterly wind moved the whole field up the lake. About 
sundown the wind chopped suddenly around and blew 
a gale from the west. This brought the vast tract of ice 
down again with such tremendous force that it filled in 
the neck of the Lake and the outlet so that the outflow 
of the water was very greatly impeded. Of course it onl^ 
needed a short space of time for the Falls to drain off the 
water below Black Rock. 

The consequence was that when we arose in the morn- 
ing at Niagara, we found our river was nearly half gone. 
The American channel had dwindled to a respectable 
creek. The British channel looked as though it had been 
smitten with a quick consumption, and was fast passing 
away. Far up from the head of Goat Island and out into 
the Canadian rapids, the water was gone, as it was also 
from the lower end of ^ Goat Island, out beyond the 
tower. The rocks were bare, black and forbidding. The 
roar of Niagara had subsided almost to a moan. The 
scene was desolate, and but for its novelty and the cer- 
tainty that it would change before many hours, would 



114 Niagara. 

have been gloomy and saddening. Every person who 
has visited Niagara will remember a beautiful jet of water 
which shoots up into the air about forty rods south of the 
outer Sister in the great rapids, called, with a singular 
contradiction of terms, the ' Leaping Rock/ The writer 
drove a horse and buggy from near the head of Goat 
Island out to a point above and near to that jet. With 
a log cart and four horses, he had drawn from the outside 
of the outer island, a stick of pine timber hewed twelve 
inches square, and forty feet long. From the top of the 
middle island was drawn a still larger stick hewed on one 
side and sixty feet long. 

There are few places on the globe where a person 
would be less likely to go lumbering than in the rapids of 
the Niagara, just above the brink of the Horse-shoe Fall. 
All the people of the neighborhood were abroad explor- 
ing recesses and cavities that had never before been ex- 
posed to mortal eyes. The writer went some distance up 
the shore of the river. Large fields of the muddy bottom 
were laid bare. The shell-fish, the uni-valves and the bi- 
valves, the Unios, Cyclas and Valvatas were in despair. 
Their housekeeping and domestic arrangements were 
most unceremoniously exposed. The clams with their 
backs up and their open mouths down in the mud were 
making their sinuous courses towards the shrunken stream. 
The small-fry of fishes were wriggling in wonder to find 
themselves impounded in small pools, where the room of 
their friends, would have been, emphatically, better than 
their company Testudae found their backs out of water 
without the necessity of mounting a log. One monstrous 



History and Incidents, 115 

individual of the snapping order, about the size, circum- 
ferentially, of a half-bushel measure, who was probably 
the patriarch of his tribe, found himself obliged to survey 
more territory than he could conveniently compass, and 
while seeking a new home, had been captured by two 
ragged urchins who had secured his attention as well as 
his teeth to the end of an alder rod, with which they 
were trying to draw him home. With his four pedal sup- 
porters stretched firmly and defiantly forward, and his 
eyes snapping with rage, he was testudinally not to say 
manfully contesting every inch of the ground. The wri- 
ter suggested that he would draw easier if the boys would 
turn him over on his back. This was a piece of grand 
strategy for w^hich he was not prepared. It took him not 
only in the flank but in the rear, all over and all around. 
His arms and armory were both upset. His eyes were 
no longer to the front. On the contrary they were con- 
stantly liable to be wiped in a manner not at all healthful 
or agreeable. Turtle flesh and blood could stand it no 
longer. Conquering the proverbial obstinacy of his race, 
he surrendered at discretion. He would have been glad 
to be backed by his friends, but it was intolerable to be 
backed in this manner by his enemies. Those enemies 
doubtless loved him, after they had made him into soup. 

This singular syncope of the waters lasted all the day, 
and night closed over the strange scene. But in the 
morning our river was restored in all its strength, and 
beauty and majesty, and we were glad to welcome its 
swelling tide once more. 

It fs a curious fact that nine-tenths of the persons who 



1 1 6 Niagara. 

visit the Falls for the first time are, on their arrival, com- 
pletely bewildered as to their points of compass ; and 
this without reference to the direction from which they 
may approach them. All understand the general geo- 
graphical fact, that Canada lies north of the United States. 
Hence they naturally suppose when they arrive at the 
frontier that they must see Canada to the north of them. 
But when they reach Niagara Falls they look across the 
river into Canada, in one direction directly south, and in 
another directly west. Only a reference to the map will 
rectify the erroneous impression. It is corrected at once 
on noting that the Niagara river empties into the south 
side of Lake Ontario and not into its west end. 

One other fact may be regarded as well-established, 
namely : that most visitors are disappointed when they 
first look upon the Falls. They are not immediately and 
forcibly impressed by the scene as they had expected to 
be. The reasons for this are easily explained. The chief 
one is that the visitor first sees the Falls from a point 
above them. Before seeing them, he reads of their great 
height j he expects to look up at them and behold the 
great mass of water, falling, as it were, from the sky. He 
reads of the trembling earth ; of the cloud of spray, that 
may be seen an hundred miles away ; of the thunder of 
the torrent, and of the rainbows. He does not consider 
that these are occasional facts. He may not know he is 
near the Falls until he gets just over them. At certain 
times he feels no trembling of the earth ; he hears no 
stunning roar ; he may see the spray scattered in all di- 
rections by the wind and, of course, he will see no bow. 



History and Incidents. 117 

Naturally, he is disappointed. But it is not long before 
the grand reality begins to break upon him, and every 
succeeding day and hour of observation impresses him 
more and more deeply with the vastness, the power, the 
sublimity of the scene and the wonderful and varied 
beauty of its accessories and surroundings. Those who 
spend one or more seasons at Niagara know how very 
little can be seen or comprehended by those who ^^ stop 
over one train.'' 

They are fortunate who can see the Falls^frj-/ from the 
Ferry boat on the river below, and about one-third of the 
way across from the American shore. The writer has fre- 
quently tried the experiment with friends who were will- 
ing to trust themselves, v^ith closed eyes, to his guidance, 
and wait until he had 'given them the signal to look up- 
ward. The experience with the neophyte is invariably 
one of great astonishment and delight. 

Those who may be at Niagara a few nights before and 
after a full moon will not fail to go to the tower to see 
the Lunar Bow. It is the most unreal of all real things, 
a thing of weird and shadowy beauty. 

Another striking scene peculiar to the locality is wit- 
nessed in the autumn, when the sun m making his annual 
southing reaches a point which, at the sunset hour, is di- 
rectly west from the Falls. Then those who are east of 
them see the spray illuminated by the slant rays of the 
sinking orb. In the calm of the hour and the peculiar 
atmosphere of the season, the majestic cloud looks like 
the spray of molten gold. And as the gorgeous column 
rises, fold on fold, up the radiant sky with the glowing 



1 1 8 Niagara. 

west for a back-ground, it is not difficult for the beholder 
to imagine that he can realize something of the splendor of 

" The robes which the glorified wear.^' 

In 1840 there was a small patch of stones, gravel, sand 
and earth called Gull Island, lying near the centre of the 
Canadian rapid and about one hundred rods above the 
Horse-shoe Fall. It was apparently twenty rods long 
by two rods wide and was covered wdth a growth of 
willow bushes. It was so named because it was a favorite 
resort of that singular combination of the most delicate 
bones and lightest feathers called a Gull. The birds 
appear large and awkward on the wing, but as they sit 
upon the water nothing can appear more graceful. They 
are far-sighted and keen scented. Their eyes are marvels 
of beauty. They are eccentric in their habits, the very 
Arabs of their race, here to-day and gone to-morrow* 
They are gregarious and often assemble in large numbers* 
At times in a series of wild, rapid, devious gyrations and 
uttering a low, mournful murmur they seem to be engaged, 
as it were, in some solemn festival commemorative of their 
departed kindred. Hundreds of them will be thus 
engaged for nearly an hour. One moment the air will be 
filled with them and their sad refrain ; the next this ceases 
and not a gull is to be seen. They come as they go 
summer and winter alike. In thirty years the writer has 
never been able to discover when nor whence they came 
nor whither they departed. In winter they generally 
appear in the milder days, and their disappearance is 
followed by cooler weather. If we had a few gull 



History and Incidents. 119 

stations in the latitudes of their flight, they might perhaps 
be utilized as a winged thermometer. 

In the spring of 1847 a long and fierce gale from the 
west, driving the water down Lake Erie caused the 
highest rise ever known in the river. It rose six feet per- 
pendicular on the Rapids and for the first time reached 
the floor plank on the old bridge. The greater part of 
Gull Island was washed down in this flood, and ten 
years after it had wholly disappeared. 

The vague tradition — the origin of which cannot be 
traced — that there is a periodical flux and reflux of the 
waters in the great Lakes, which embraces a period of 
about seven years, is not confirmed by the writer^s obser. 
vation, if it be intended to afiirm that the ebb and flow 
are both completed in seven years. His observation 
shows that there is a flow of about seven years, and a re- 
flux which is accomplished in the same period. The 
water in the Niagara was very low in 1843-4, again in 
1857-8, and again in 1871-2. This last is the lowest 
long continued shrunkage ever known. It is probable 
the flow will recommence in 1873. It is, however, alto-^ 
gether probable that the general level of the Lakes will 
fall hereafter, owing to the destruction of the forests and 
the cultivation of the land along their shores. In this 
case the waters of the Niagara and Detroit rivers may, in 
the far future, meet in the bed of Lake Erie, and their 
margins be covered with orchards and vineyards more 
extensive and productive than those along the Rhine. 

Here the writer may appropriately mention an extraor- 
dinary performance of a fish-hawk, which he witnessed 



1 20 Niagara. 

one pleasant June day, while standing on the short bridge 
between Bath Island and Goat Island. The hawk 
-descended into the rapids just above the bridge and 
-seizing a mullet, apparently about ten inches long, rose 
with it almost perpendicularly, but bearing somewhat 
toward the island. When, seemingly, about three 
hundred feet above the water, by some mishap he lost 
his hold of the fish which, of course, began a fall of ever 
increasing velocity. The hawk turned instantly in 
pursuit and within twenty feet of the water actually re- 
captured the fish and bore him off in triumph. As there 
was no visible motion of the wings the writer could only 
account for this apparent violation of the laws of gavity a 
by supposing that the bird, the living matter must have 
possessed a certain inherent power, a certain vim^ which 
enabled it to accelerate its downward motion, while at 
the same time the air bladder of the fish may have been 
fully distended, thus retarding his motion. 

St. John de Cr6ve Coeur in his travels in upper 
Pennsylvania, in 1798, describes a similar scene and gives 
a pictorial representation of it. 

A hawk having risen in the air with a fine pike is set 
upon by an eagle and compelled to drop his game. 
Thereupon the eagle starts after and secures it before it, 
strikes the water below. 

The Hermit of the Falls, so called, Mr. Francis Abbott, 
came to the village in June, 1829. He was a rather well- 
looking, respectable young man of moderate attainments 
who was subject, apparently, to a mild form of inter- 
mittent derangement. Though his manner was eccentric, 



Local History and Incidents, 121 

his conduct was harmless, and it is probable that his 
parents, who, it was afterwards ascertained were respect- 
able members of the Society of Friends in England, 
encouraged his desire to travel and furnished him the 
means to do so. He seems to have had some taste for 
music and to have been a tolerable performer on the flute. 
The love of nature which attached him so strongly to 
Niagara was certainly creditable to him. He wandered 
much about the island both night and day, and often 
bathed below the little fall on the south side of Goat 
Island near its head. He lived alone in an unoccupied 
log hut directly across the island from this fall until about 
the first April, 1831, when he removed to a little cabin 
of his own building on Point-view. In June of that year, 
just two years after his arrival, he was drowned while 
bathing below the Ferry. Ten days after his body was 
found at Fort Niagara, brought back and buried in the 
God's acre at the Falls. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

LOCAL HISTORY AND INCIDENTS. 

Avery on the log — Young man and girl over the Falls — Death 
of Miss Rugg — Singular Monument — Competition for 
business stand — Swans — Eagles — Crows — Ducks over the 
Falls — Dogs go over and live — Reason why — Water cones. 

ON the morning of the 19th of July, 1853, a man 
was discovered in the middle of the American ra- 
pid, about thirty rods below the bridge. He was cling- 

I 



122 Niagara. 

ing to a log which had lodged against a rock the previous 
spring. He proved to be a Mr. Avery, who had under- 
taken to cross the river above, the night before, got be- 
wildered in the current, and was drawn into the rapids. 
His boat struck the log, was overturned, and by some 
extraordinary good fortune he was able to hold to the 
timber. A large crowd was soon gathered on the shore 
and bridge. A sign painted in large letters ^^We will 
save you," was fastened to a building that the reading of 
it might cheer and encourage him. Boats and ropes 
were provided, with willing hands to use them. The first 
boat lowered into the rapids filled and sank just before 
reaching Avery. The next, a life-boat which had been 
procured from Buffalo, was let down, reached the log, 
was dashed off by the reacting waters, upset and sank 
beside him. Another light, clinker-built boat was launched 
and reached him just right. But in some unaccountable 
manner the rope got caught between the rock and the 
log. It was impossible to loosen it. Poor Avery tugged 
and worked at it with almost superhuman energy for 
hours. The citizens above pulled at the rope until it 
broke. 

By this time a raft had been constructed with a strong 
cask fastened to each corner, and ropes attached so that 
Avery could tie himself to it. It was lowered and reached 
him safely. He got on it and seized the ropes. Every 
heart grew lighter as the rescuers moved across the lower 
part of Bath Island, drawing in the rope, and the raft 
swinging easily toward Goat Island. But when it reached 
the head of Chapin's Island all hopes were dashed again. 



Local History and Incidents. 123 

The rope attached to the raft, as it was passing below a 
ledge in a swift schute of water, got caught in the rocks. 
All efforts to loosen it were ineffectual. Another boat 
was launched and let down stream. It reached the raft 
all right, and Avery, in his eagerness to seize it, dropped 
the ropes he had been holding, stepped to the top of the 
raft with his hands extended to catch the boat, when the 
former seemed by his weight to be settled in the water, 
and, just missing his hold, he was swept into the rapids, 
went down the north side of Chapin's Island, and almost 
in reach of it, in water so shallow that he rose to his feet, 
threw up his hands in despair, fell backward and went 
over the Fall, after a terrific struggle with death, which 
lasted eighteen hours. 

The names connected with the next incident are sup- 
pressed out of regard for the feelings of surviving friends. 
It is given as a warning to future visitors to Niagara, not 
to attempt any mirthful experiments around the Falls. 
A party of ladies, gentlemen and children were on Luna 
Island just above a little beech tree with a bent top, 
called "the Parasol.'* A young girl of ten was standing 
near her mother just on the brink of the water ; a young 
man of twenty-two stepped up beside her, seized her play- 
fully by the arms saying, " Now, Nannie, I am going to 
throw you in ;" and swung her out over the water. Taken 
by surprise, and frightened, she struggled, twisted herself 
out of his grasp, and fell into the rapid within twenty feet 
of the brink of the precipice. Instantly the young man 
plunged in after her, seized hold of her dress and swung 
her around toward her half-distracted mother, who almost 



1 24 Niagara. > 

reached her as she slipped by and went over the Fall, 
immediately followed by the young man. The young girl 
was found some days afterward lying on her back on a 
large rock, holding her open parasol above her head, as 
though she had lain down to rest. A few weeks after- 
ward the father of the young man was coming up the 
river on the Maid of the Mist, from the lower landing. 
A body was discovered floating in the water, and by the 
aid of a small boat was brought on board the steamer. It 
was that of his dead son. 

The next incident shows how the comic sometimes 
grows out of the tragic. On the 23rd of August, 1844, 
Miss Martha K. Rugg was walking up to Table Rock 
with a friend. Seeing a bunch of cedar berries 
on a low tree which grew out from the edge of the bank, 
leaving her companion she reached out to pick it, lost 
her footing and fell one hundred and fifteen feet on to 
the rocks below. She survived about three hours. As 
usual, in such cases, future pilgrims to Table Rock in- 
quired for the spot where this accident happened. The 
following spring, an enterprising Irishman, wishing to an- 
swer these inquiries, and at the same time secure a little 
daily bread, brought out a table of suitable dimensions, 
set it down on the bank of the river and covered it with 
sundry articles which he offered for sale. In order to en- 
lighten strangers as to the peculiarity of the spot he pro- 
vided a remarkable sign, which he set up near one end of 
the table. He made of pine boards a monumental obelisk 
about five feet high, and painted it white. On the rec- 
tangular base which supported the shaft, he painted in 



Local History and Incidents. 125 

black letters the following poetical and touching inscrip- 
tion: 

" Ladies fair, most beauteous of the race, 
Beware and shun a dangerous place. 
Miss Martha Rugg here lost her life 
Who might now have been a happy wife." 

As the stand proved to be a good one and his business 
prosperous, an envious competitor, one of his own country- 
men, proposed to share it with him. Accordingly he 
brought his table of sundries, and placed it and them just 
above the original mourner. Thereupon the latter, deter- 
mined that his rival should not have the benefit of his 
unique and mournful sign, removed it below his own 
table, having first removed the table itself as far down as 
circumstances would permit. Then he added his master- 
stroke of policy. Theretofore the monument had, very 
properly, been stationary. Thenceforward every day on 
quitting business, he put it on a wheel-barrow and toted it 
home, bringing it out again on resuming operations in the 
morning. If there is one thing in the world which> 
more than any other, ought to be considered a perman- 
ency, it would seem to be a monument to the dead. The 
idea of an itinerating tombstone is eminently worthy of its 
Milesian origin. 

Previous to the war of 181 2, the Niagara river abounded 
in swans, wild geese and ducks. Since that war none of 
the former have been seen here, except two pairs which 
came at different times. One of each pair went over the 



126 Niagara. 

Falls and was taken out alive but stunned. The other 
two, faithful unto death, were shot while watching and 
waiting for the return of their mates. 

Eagles have always been seen in the vicinity, and a few 
have been captured. A single pair for many years had 
their eyrie in the top of a huge dead sycamore tree near 
the head of Burnt Ship Bay, It was interesting to watch 
the flight of the male bird when he left it and his brooding 
mate on a foraging expedition. Leaving the topmost limb 
that served as his home observatory, he swept around in a 
large horizontal circle, which formed the base of a regular 
spiral curve, in which he rose to any desired height. 
Then, having apparently determined by scent or sight, or 
by both, the direction he would take in a tangent, he sailed 
grandly off to the destined point. How grandly too, on 
his return, he floated on to his lofty perch with a single 
fold of his great wings, and sat for a few moments, mo- 
tionless as a statue, before greeting his queenly mate. 
The writer, while on a sporting excursion in the vicinity 
when the young eaglets had but recently chipped their 
cells, gave energetic heed to an intimation that the family 
.were not receiving callers at that time, and was quite con- 
tent to view the majestic pair at a respectful distance. 
Spread Eagle may not be very formidable in a newspaper 
— ^nor even in a book. But a pair of spread eagles, each 
carrying ten talons, a hooked beak, a strong pair of wings 
and an unerring eye, all backed and propelled by an in- 
domitable will and courage, are not to be recklessly trifled 
with. The noble family, not liking the intrusion of their 
human neighbors, sought a new home some years since. 



Local History and Incidents. 127 

Before the war of the Rebellion, Niagara was rather a 
favorite resort of that general winged-scavenger, the crow, 
and at times, in what seemed to be a western emigration, 
they were very numerous. But after the first year of the 
war they entirely disappeared. Snuffing the battle from 
afar they turned instinctively to the bloody forage grounds 
of the south, and did not reappear among us until some 
years after the war had ended. 

Large numbers of ducks formerly went over the Falls, 
but not for the reason generally assigned, namely, that 
they cannot rise out of the rapids. It is true that they 
cannot rise from the water while heading up stream. 
When they wish to do so, they turn down the current and 
sail out without difficulty. No sound and living duck 
ever went over the precipice by daylight. Dark, and 
especially foggy nights^ are most fatal to them. In the 
month of September, 1841, four hundred ducks were 
picked up below the Falls, who had gone over in the fog 
of the previous night. In two instances dogs have been 
sent over the Falls and survived the plunge. In Novem- 
ber, 1836, a troublesome female bull-tarrier was put in a 
coffee sack, by a couple of men who had determined to 
get rid of her, and thrown off from the middle of Goat 
Island bridge. In the following spring she was found 
alive and well about sixty rods below the Ferry, having 
lived through the winter on a deceased cow that was 
thrown over the bank the previous fall. In 1858 an- 
other dog, a male of the same breed, was thrown 
into the rapids, also near the middle of the bridge. In 
less than an hour he came up the Ferry stairs very 



128 Niagara. 

wet and not at all gay. He was ever after a sadder if 
not a better dog. 

The reason why the animals were not killed may be thus 
explained. From the top of the rapids tower the spectator 
gets a perfect view of the periphery of the Canadian Fall. 
If he will, on a bright day, look steadily at the bottom of 
the Horse-Shoe where water falls into water, he will see, 
as the spray is occasionally removed, a beautiful exhibi- 
tion of water cones apparently ten or twelve feet high. 
These|are formed by the rapid accumulation and con- 
densation of the falling water. It pours down so rapidly 
and in such quantities that the water below, so to speak, 
cannot run off fast enough and it piles up as though it 
were in a state of violent ebullition. These cones are 
constantly forming and breaking. If any strong animal 
should fall on to one of these cones as on to a soft cushion 
it might slide safely into the current below. The dogs 
were doubtless fortunate enough to fall in this way, aided 
also by the repulsion of the water from the rocks in the 
swift channel through which they passed. It is not im- 
possible that some strong man in a light, strong boat may 
thus, at some future time,go over the Horse-Shoe Fall and 
not be killed. 



Local History and Incidents. 129 



CHAPTER XV. 

LOCAL HISTORY AND INCIDENTS. 

Niagara and bridal tourists — Anecdotes — Bridges to the 
Moss Islands — Railway at the Ferry — Persons over the 
Falls — Other accidents — First Suspension Bridge — Rail- 
way Suspension Bridge — Mr. Charles Ellet — Mr. John E. 
Robeling — Extraordinary motion of bridge — De Veaux Col- 
lege — Lewiston Suspension Bridge — Suspension Bridge at 
the Falls. 

LIKE all places where men do congregate, Niagara is 
a good place to study human nature, many comical 
phases of which are there seen. For many years it has 
been famous as a favorite resort for bridal tourists, a 
honeymoon cell where they can escape the hum of busy- 
life and charm each other vidth their own particular hums ; 
where in a crowd of strangers they can be so excessively 
proper that every one else can see how charmingly im- 
proper they are. And the question is frequently asked 
why it should be so? why a passion which is so all- 
embracing in the concrete and so all-selfish and absorbing 
in the particular as love is, should exhibit itself in a place 
so public ? The most obvious reason would seem to be 
that Niagara is the only place which by its vastness can 
equal the great happiness which is conferred upon those 
fortunate knights and ladies who have received Cupid's 
divinest accolade, and that only its majestic monotone 
can be in accord with the blissful harmony which is 



1 30 Niagara. 

purring in their united hearts. If Lord Byron could 
have visited Niagara in bride-time he would not have 
suggested) in the double-barrel apostrophe to "Love and 
Glory" which opens the seventh canto of Don Juan, that 
love at least was flying 

" Around us ever, rarely to alight." 

It is not probable that all the bizarre and extraordinary 
performances of humanity are to be attributed to newly 
married people, but they are generally in such a state of 
sentimental — if not mental — hallucination that terrene 
matters seem to get quite confused with them. 

A few years since a newly married pair from Ohio took 
quarters at the Cataract. After breakfast they went out 
to see the sights. Linking themselves together in the 
manner peculiar to little girls when they go "skip and a 
hop,'' they left the Cataract, went around Goat Island, 
looked into all the shop windows, returned again to the 
hotel and walked up the front stairs without breaking the 
double lock. Both their happiness and rustic simplicity 
were complete, as manifested in their manner and serenely 
beaming on their countenances, while all other counten- 
ances at Niagara were illumined with a smile. 

One pleasant afternoon, when the cars for Lockport 
started from in front of the Cataract, while the piazza was 
filled with guests who had just left the dinner table and 
were watching the train,— that perpetual provocative of 
curiosity whether standing or moving — there came out of 
the broad front door another newly married pair from 
Indiana, the enamored youth with his right hand holding 



Local History and Incidents. 131 

the blooming maid by her left and their arms extended 
at full length. Thus he led her out to the cars, and as- 
she entered the door, he turned toward the smiling crowd 
with a most satisfied expression on his face, which plainly 
said "that's the way to do it." 

Not long since, a young Illinoisan — for a wonder he 
had no wife with him — stopped at the Cataract over a 
train and had his dinner. Looking over the attractive 
wine list of that house, he ordered a large bottle of 
Heidseck. The waiter duly iced his goblet and filled it 
with the sparkling wine. The guest drank about half of 
it, but as it soon made a gaseous demonstration through 
his nose, he shoved it aside. On settling at the office^ 
he of course found the wine on his bill. Enquiring what 
that meant he was shown the card by which it was 
ordered. "And do you charge for it?'' "Yes Sir.''' 
"Well but it was on the feed bill and I supposed it went 
with the provisions. Besides I only drank a part of a 
glass." Having his erroneous impression on the subject 
corrected, and finding that the proprietors would not 
" allow him something for what was left" he concluded 
to take it with him. The bottle was brought and he took 
it to his room. After a time he returned with it to the 
ofl[ice and said he could not "get the cork tight, it kept 
coming out and leaking on his clothes." As there was. 
no remedy for this except to wire in the cork, and he 
could get no wire, he drank what he could and left the 
remainder on the counter. When he left for the train he 
had apparently more gas in his head than could well 
escape at his nose. 



132 Niagara. 

The three fine, graceful bridges which unite Goat 
Island with the three smaller islands lying south of it 
named the Moss Islands, or the Three Sisters, were built 
in 1858. They opened a new and very attractive feature 
of the locality, with which all visitors are charmed. 
Those who have been on them, will remember what a 
broken, wild, tangled mass of rocks, wood and vines 
they are. Nothing on Onalaska's wildest shore could be 
more thoroughly primitive. On Goat Island are posted 
the usual notices for the protection of trees. Whatever 
wit there may be in changing the location of signs, would 
seem to have been exhausted long ago. But one sum- 
mer morning, visitors to the outer Sister, were rather 
amused to see in the roughest part of the island, a sign 
posted asking them, '^ Please not hitch horses to the 
trees." 

A rude path with steps cut in the talus of the bank was 
for some years the only way of getting down to the 
water's edge at the Ferry. In 1825 several flights of 
stairs were erected, with good paths between, which made 
the task quite safe and easy. The double railway-track 
at the Ferry was completed in 1845. When the neces- 
sary excavations for its passage were nearly finished, and 
people were told, in answer to their inquiries, the object 
of it, the scheme met no approval from those conserva- 
tive prophets, who have no faith in new things, nor in 
attempting to do in the present, what has never been 
done in the past. The idea of a railway " to go by water " 
was not considered a brilliant one. Indeed the majority 
.shrugged their shoulders at the thought of riding down 



Local History and Incidents. 133. 

that hill. But as soon as the lumber cars were started for 
the convenience of the workmen, and people saw how ex- 
peditious and easy was the trip, it was difficult to keep them 
ofif the cars. Hundreds of thousands of passengers have 
ridden in them without accident or injury. The motive 
power is a reaction water-wheel set in a deep pit, and as 
all the machinery is concealed, it has quite the appear- 
ance of a self-working apparatus. 

The summer after this railway%as finished, a tall, lean, 
wiry individual, whose Yankee origin was unmistakable, 
went into the Ferry House and examined the operation 
of the machinery with great interest. He made many in- 
quiries of the Superintendent, Mr. George W. Sims, all 
of which were, apparently, satisfactorily answered, and he 
started to leave. Reaching the door, he seemed to be 
struck with a new idea, and returning to the Superinten- 
dent asked, " But suppose that r^/^ should\yi:t^k after the 
thing gets going ?^^ to which the reply was, " It makes no- 
difference, as we take the pay before they start P' There 
is alongside of the railroad a straight stairway of two hun- 
dred and ninety steps, for those who prefer to use it 

Mr. Sims has had constant charge of this railway since 
it was built, and by his good nature, prudence and firm- 
ness, especially during a pic-nic avalanche of humanity, 
he has well succeeded in managing it safely and satisfac- 
torily. 

Before recording the casualties which have occurred on 
the river we may note the fact that, for the first time sa 
far as known, the broad channel from Schlosser to Navy 
Island was entirely closed over by the ice in February of 



134 Niagara. 

the present year — 1872. The ice bridge of this year be- 
low the Falls, was formed the night before Christmas and 
remained until the fourth day of April. There have 
been six ice bridges in the last ten years. The winter 
scenery has been' very fine ; but there has been no such 
extraordinary accumulation of ice upon the American 
rapids as occurred in 1856. The photographers have se- 
cured many striking views ; but they have never yet been 
able to secure satisfactory presentations of the exquisite 
fringes of ice and frozen fog which we have before 
described. 

The number of victims whom carelessness or folly has 
sent over the Falls is quite formidable and doubtless quite 
independent of any Indian tradition that the great Cata- 
ract demands a yearly sacrifice of two victims, since no 
such tradition can be authenticated. 

In 1 8 10 the boat Independence^ laden with salt, filled and 
sunk while crossing to Chippawa. The captain 
and two of the crew went over the Falls. Another 
of the crew clung to a large oar and was saved 
by a small boat from Chippawa. 

182 1 Two men in a scow were driven down the cur- 
rent by the wind and also went over. 

1825 Two men and boat from Grand Island went over. 

1825 Three men went over in three different canoes. 

1841 Two men, engaged in smuggling, boat upset in 
the current, one went over. One found dead 
on Grass Island. Two men boating sand in 



Local History and Incidents, 135 

a scow, were drawn into the current and went 
over. 

1847 A lad of fourteen undertook to row across on a 
Sunday morning, and went over. 

1848 In August a man went under the Goat Island 
Bridge, within ten feet of the shore ; asked of 
persons on the bridge, " Can I be saved ?^' 
Soon after boat upset, and he went over feet 
foremost, struck on the rocks below, and never 
seen afterward. 

1848 A small boy and girl playing in a skiff which 
swung off the shore; the mother waded into 
the water and rescued the girl. The boy sitting 
in the bottom of the skiff, with a hand on each 
side, went over. 

1870 A lady from Chicago, deranged, threw herself 
from Goat Island Bridge, and went over. 

187 1 In June three men, unacquainted with the river, 
hired a boat to cross, were drawn into the rapids 
and went over. 

187 1 July two men in a boat went over. 

1 841 A number of British soldiers, stationed at Drum- 
mondville, attempted to swim across at the Ferry 
at different times. Two were drowned; but 
several succeeded in escaping. 

1842 A British soldier attempted to lower himself 
down the bank opposite Barnett's Museum, in 
order to escape to the American shore. The 
rope broke and he was killed by the fall. 

1844 In August a gentleman was washed off from a 



136 Niagara. 

rock under the great Fall, which he had stepped 
onto in opposition to the remonstrances of the 
guide. 
1846 In August a gentleman fell forty feet from a rock 
below the Cave of the Winds : was instantly 
killed. 
1852 In January a man fell from the Tower bridge 
into the rapids, and was caught between two 
rocks just on the brink of the precipice, whence 
he was rescued, nearly exhausted, by means of a 
rope. 
1840 During the night of April 17th, Brock^s monu- 
ment was blown up, the shaft split from top to 
bottom, and half of the observatory blown oft 
It was a complete wreck. The unfortuuate 
criminal who did the mischief, as he confessed 
afterward when sent to prison for another crime, 
came near being — not hoist by his own petard 
— but crushed by the falling stone, since his 
fuse, being placed perpendicular, exploded the 
torpedo sooner than he expected. 
The old was replaced by the new monument, in i8ss^ 
On the 4th of July, 1857, on the partial completion 
of the Hydraulic Canal, the principal stockholders inter- 
ested in the project, with a number of invited guests, cele- 
brated the event by an excursion from Buffalo on the 
Cygnet^ the first steamer that ever landed within the 
limits of the village. Although steamboats had long 
been run both to Chippawa and Schlosser, two miles 
above the Falls, yet it was thought to be impracticable 



Local History and Incidents. 137 

and hazardous to run down to the village. But the wri- 
ter, some years before, taking Robinson as boatswain, 
traced out a channel which was followed on this occasion. 
It is now used during the season of navigation by tugs 
towing canal boats and rafts out and in. No passenger 
boat, however, has been placed on the route, although 
the sail on the river is a charming one. 

Mr. Charles Ellet, in 1848, built the first suspension 
bridge over the chasm, He offered a reward of five dol- 
lars to any one who would get a string across it. The 
next windy day all the boys in the neighborhood were 
kiting, though not in the Wall street manner, and before 
night a lucky youth landed his kite in Canada and re- 
ceived the reward. Of this little string were born, so 
to speak, the large cables which support the present vast 
structure. But the firstlron successor of the string was a 
small wire cable, seven-eighths of an inch in diameter. To 
this was suspended a wire basket in which two persons 
could cross the chasm. The basket was attached to an 
endless rope, worked by a windlass on each bank. The 
ride down to the centre was rapid and delightful. The 
pause over the centre of the abyss was apt to make the 
coolest persons a little anxious, and the jerky motion up 
the opposite side was rather annoying. The engineer 
was bold and brilliant rather than profound in his pro- 
fession. At an entertainment given on the occasion of 
the completion of the bridge . the good people of the em- 
bryo village, elated with their new acquisition, were in- 
clined to regard their neighbors at the Falls with rather a 
patronizing sympathy. One of the latter said to Mr, 

J 



138 Niagara. 

EUet, " This bridge is a very clever] affair, and you only 
need the Falls here to build up quite a respectable village/^ 
" Well/' he replied, " give me money enough and I will 
put them here." He had great faith in dollar-power, even 
to the adding of the supreme adjective. 

This bridge was an excellent auxiliary in the con- 
struction of the present railway Suspension Bridge, built 
by Mr. John A. Robeling. It was commenced in 1852 
and the first locomotive crossed it in March, 1855. ^^ is 
. one of the most brilliant examples of modern engineering. 
It is unique and stands unrivalled for its grace, beauty 
and strength. It is one of the few structures that not 
only harmonizes with the grand scenery of the vicinity, 
but even augments its impressiveness. It is eminently 
appropriate to the locality and admirably fitted for the 
purpose it was designed to serve. Its plan is original^ 
apt and excellent in every way. It was necessary that its 
railway track should be as high as the secondary banks of 
the river. It was also desirable to have a carriage way. 
It was wholly inexpedient to have the two side by side. 
Frightened horses and careless people would cause many 
serious accidents. Besides this the terminus of the 
carriage way would be too far from the banks of the 
river. 

Seizing at once upon the natural capabilities of the 
location, the engineer resolved to combine the advantages 
of two systems of construction, those of the Tubular and 
Suspension Bridges. The carriage way was placed level 
with the banks of the river at the edges of the chasm. 
The railway track was placed eighteen feet above on a 



Local History and Incidents. 1 39 

level with the top of the secondary banks across which 
the two railroads were to approach it. The plan was 
perfect and perfectly and faithfully executed in all its 
details. It is practically a skeleton tube. As the traveler 
passes over it in the carriage or the railroad car, from the 
almost total absence of any vibratory motion, he feels at 
once that he is on a safe basis and his sense of security 
is complete. While contemplating the grand scenery 
which may be viewed from its floor, we may reverently 
rejoice that the Creator has given to man, his creature, 
the capacity to comprehend, admire, utilize and adorn it. 

One feature in the construction of the bridge may be 
noticed as having a bearing on the question of its 
durability. It is well known that when wrought iron is 
exposed to long continued or oft repeated and rapid 
concussions, its fibres after a time become granulated 
whereby its strength is greatly impaired and finally 
exhausted. It is also known that the effect of rhythmical 
or regular vibrations is more destructive than the effect 
of those which are inharmonious or irregular. Because 
of this, no body of men is allowed to march to music 
across a bridge, nor a large number of cattle allowed to 
cross at once lest they should, by accident, fall into a time 
step and so overstrain or break down the bridge. It is 
the difference between a single heavy blow and an 
irregular succession of light ones. Hence when har- 
monious, regular vibrations can be broken up, the 
destructive effect is greatly modified and retarded. 

The bridge is supported by two large cables on each 
side, one pair above the other, the lower pair being nearer 



140 Niagara, 

together horizontally than the upper pair, so that a cross 
section of the skeleton tube would be shaped somewhat 
like the key stone of an arch. Each of these large cables 
is ten inches in diameter and is composed of seven 
smaller ones called strands. These smaller strands are 
made of number nine wire and each one contains five 
hundred and twenty wires. Each of these wires was 
boiled three several times in linseed oil, so that it was 
covered with an oleaginous coating of considerable 
thickness and great adhesive power. Each wire was 
carried across the river separately, from tower to tower, by 
a contrivance of the engineers, the chief feature of which 
was a light iron pully about twenty inches in diameter, 
suspended on what might be called a wire cord. This ap- 
paratus was called a traveler, and curious and interesting 
was its performance as seen from below. It looked like 
a huge spider weaving an iron web that might — perhaps 
will — defy the Fates. 

Six of the seven strands forming a large cable were laid 
around the seventh as a centre, and when all were pro- 
perly placed they were again saturated with oil and paint 
After this, by another contrivance of the engineers, they 
were wound or wrapped with wire, like winding a rope 
cable with marlin, and thus the whole cable was thoroughly 
compacted laterally and made into a huge, round iron 
rope. This is covered with numerous coats of paint so 
that the oxidation of the inner wires would seem to be 
impossible. The oft recurring succession of iron wire and 
its oleagenous coating, together with the small triangular 
spaces between the wires would seem to reduce the 



L ocal History and Incidents. 141 

destructive power of the vibrations to zero. But the 
vibrations are very greatly reduced and the stiffness of the 
structure is greatly increased by the use of a series of 
triangular stays, the triangle being the only geometrical 
figure whose angles cannot be shifted. There are sixty- 
four of these triangles. Their hypothenuses are formed 
by over-floor stays of wire rope reaching from the tops of 
the towers to different points in the lower floor, this 
latter, of course, forming their common base and the 
towers their altitude. The stays are fastened to the 
suspenders so as to form straight lines. As the towers 
and the floor are rigid and solid in the direction of the 
lines they represent, it follows that the intersections of 
the hypothenuses with the common base form so many 
stationary points in the latter. These stationary points 
present a powerful resistance to vibrations. The side 
trusses with their system of diamond work braces and the 
weight of the railway track on the upper bridge also help 
much to stifl'en the structure. There are likewise fifty- 
six under stays or guys of wire rope fastened to the rocks 
below, designed to prevent upward and lateral vibrations. 
A heavy locomotive with twenty full loaded cars produced 
a depression of the cambre or upper curvature of the 
track of nearly ten inches. The ordinary loads produce 
a depression of only five inches. 

In Part Second attention is directed to a point on the 
American side of the river, just below this bridge, where 
the disintegration of the shale and abrasion of the super- 
posed rock is very strikingly exhibited. A singular phe- 
nomenon was presented here in 1863. Amass of rock 



142 Niagara. 

and shale, about fifty feet long, twenty feet wide and sixty 
feet deep, fell with a great crash onto the hard bed of the 
river. Directly following the fall a remarkable motion 
was developed in the bridge itself. A strong wave of 
motion passed through the whole structure from the Ame- 
rican side to the opposite shore, and returned again to the 
same side. 

Some twelve or fifteen mechanics who were at work on 
the upper or railway track, were so alarmed that they fled 
with all speed to the shore. The motion imparted to the 
bridge was incalculably greater than, and of a different 
character from any motion imparted by the crossing of the 
heaviest trains. The rocky mass which fell was forty rods 
below the bridge, and the hard floor on which it struck 
more than two hundred and thirty feet beneath it. The 
mass itself fell about sixty feet average distance, and might 
have weighed five thousand tons. The extraordinary mo- 
tion imparted to the bridge by the concussion must have 
been transmitted along the subterranean rock to the an- 
chorages on the American side, thence through the cables 
and the bridge across to the anchorages on the Canadian 
side, whence it reacted or returned again to the American 
side. 

Mr. Donald McKenzie, the most capable and intelligent 
Master Carpenter and Superintendent of Repairs, who has 
been connected with the bridge constantly since its erec- 
tion, and all the men under him at the time, make and 
confirm this statement, and declare it is impossible to ex- 
aggerate or describe the wave-like motion which they ex- 
perienced while escaping to the shore. 



Local History and Incidents, 143 

Half a mile further down is De Veaux College, a 
noble charity endowed by the late Mr. Samuel De Veaux. 
He was for many years an active business man at Niagara, 
and by his integrity, industry and wise enterprise ac- 
cumulated a handsome fortune. - His death occurred in 
1852, and by his will he left nearly the whole of his estate 
to certain trustees to establish an institution for the care, 
training and education of orphan boys. One of its 
sources of income is the amount received annually for 
admissions to the Whirlpool. Every visitor to that 
interesting locality will cheerfully pay the fee charged 
when he understands this fact. 

The suspension bridge below the mountain near 
Lewiston, spanning the river where it emerges from the 
fearful abyss through which it has been struggling for the 
last five miles, was built in 1856, by Mr. T. E. Serrel. 
Like all suspended bridges it presented a graceful and 
beautiful appearance and was a fine feature in the scene 
at the foot of the gorge whose western bank is crowned 
with General Brock's equally graceful and beautiful 
monument. The guys designed to protect it from the 
eSect of the wind were fastened in the rocks on either 
side at the water's edge. The great ice jam of 1866 tore 
from their fastenings, or broke off, many of these guys. 
Before they were replaced a terrific gale in the following 
fall broke up the road-way, severed some of the suspen- 
ders and Jeft the structure a melancholy wreck dangling 
in the air. 

The new suspension bridge as it is called, just below 
the Ferry at the Falls, was built in 1868. Its length is 



144 Niagara. 

twelve hundred feet, the longest structure of the kind in 
the world, and also the narrowest of those designed for 
carriage travel. To this fact, its narrowness, it probably 
owed its safety from destruction during a fierce gale 
which occurred in the fall of 1869. The fastenings or 
dowels of several of the guys on the Canada side were 
torn out and the bridge at its centre deflected down stream 
more than its width so that the surface of its road-way 
could not be seen half its length. Then its undulations 
from end to end — like a stair carpet between the two 
persons who are shaking it — were frightful, and for a time 
it was feared that either cables or towers must give way. 
After the gale subsided the old guys were made fast again 
and new ones were added so that now it seems a durable 
work. The gale was a good insurance for it 



CHAPTER XVI. 

LOCAL HISTORY AND INCIDENTS. 

Blondin — Effect of his " ascensions '' — Prince of Wales — His 
visit to American side — Escort of boys — Testing his broad- 
cloth — Grand illumination of the Falls — Steamer Caroline 
— Workshops and rubbish along the banks — Time of re- 
cession of the Falls. 

IN the year 1858 a short, well-rounded, fair-complex- 
ioned, light-haired Frenchman, a singular compound of 
bones and brawn, muscle and gristle, made his appear- 
ance at the Falls and expressed a wish to put a rope 



Local History and Incidents. 1 45 

across the chasm below them for the purpose of cross- 
ing, and exhibiting athletic feats upon it. He received 
little encouragement, but having a Napoleonic faith in his 
star, he persevered and finally obtained the necessary 
authority to place his rope just below the Railway Sus- 
pension Bridge. It was a well and evenly-twisted rope, 
about two inches in diameter; and after stretching it as 
taut as it could be drawn it hung in a moderate catenary 
curve. Commencing at the shore ends he secured stays 
of small rope to the large one, placing them about eight 
feet apart. These were made fast to the shore in such a 
manner as to make all the stays on one side of the main 
rope parallel to each other from the centre outward to the 
ends. They were made tight somewhat in the manner 
that tent cords are tightened, and when the structure was 
completed it looked like a gigantic representation of two 
opposite polygonal sections of the web of the geometric 
spider spread out, as near as might be, horizontally. 

At each end was a spacious enclosure made by a rough 
board fence for the use of spectators. Mr. Blondin, — 
for this was the name of the new aspirant for acrobatic 
honors, — also made an arrangement with the superin- 
tendent of the railway bridge for its occupation during 
what, with a shade of irony, he called his " ascensions.^' 
Those who went within the enclosures and on to the 
bridge paid a certain sum. A contribution was asked of 
all outsiders. He selected Saturday as the day for 
fortnightly ascensions and advertised his intentions very 
liberally. The speculation was quite successful and gave 
great satisfaction to the spectators. He exhibited a 



146 Niagara. 

variety of rope-walking feats, balancing on the cable, 
hanging from it by his hands and feet, standing on his 
head, and lowering himself down to the surface of the 
water. He also carried a man across on his back, 
trundled over a loaded wheelbarrow and divers other 
things, and also walked over in a sack. He sprinkled in 
a few extras to heighten the effect, as the knowing ones 
declared, such as slipping astride the cable, falling across 
a stay rope, or dropping something into the water. In 
i860 he had a special ascension in honor of the Prince of 
Wales. The Prince and his party occupied a sheltered 
space on the Canada side, and Blondin walked to it from 
the opposite side, performing various feats on the way over. 
The Prince shook hands with him as he stepped into the 
shed, commended his courage and nerve, and had quite a 
chat with him. 

In his ordinary walks Mr. Blondin carried the heavy 
balance-pole used on such occasions, and soon after 
he gave his first exhibition there was a small argu- 
ment — or rather there were several of them — fur- 
nished to the disciples of Darwin, illustrating the imi- 
tative powers of our quadrumanous ancestors — if such they 
were. Possession was taken of every board-fence in the 
neighborhood by the village urchins, each with his bal- 
ance-pole in hand, endeavoring to " walk" its top. After 
one or two limbs had been badly damaged the sport was 
abandoned, the enterprising compounder of "a certain 
cure for contusions and bruises'' advertised on the inno- 
cent boards being the only gainer by these exceptional 
exhibitions. 



Local History and Incidents, 147 

As illustrating the power of the imagination over the 
nerves it may be noted, that if the great spider's-web had 
been stretched out anywhere on a level surface, and not 
more than three feet above it, a dozen men in any large 
community could have been found to walk it as uncon- 
cernedly if not as gracefully as the famous " ascensionist." 
After three years of successful labor at Niagara, he sought 
higher walks in longer — if not wider — fields. 

The most notable occurrence, however, which empha- 
sized the visit of the Prince of Wales in that year was the 
illumination of the Falls late in the evening of a moonless 
night. On the banks above and all about on the rocks 
below, on the lower side of the road down the Canada 
bank, and along the water's edge, were placed numerous 
colored and white calcium, volcanic and torpedo lights. 
At a given signal they were all at once set aflame. At the 
same time rockets and wheels and flying artillery were set 
off in great abundance. The shores were crowded with 
people. 

The scene was a most remarkable one. The steady, 
lurid light below and the intermittent flashes and explo- 
sions overhead ; the seething, hissing volumes of flame 
and smoke roUing up from the deep abyss ; the ghostly 
appearance of the descending stream ; the ghastly appear- 
ance of the swift current of white foam ; the weird appear- 
ance of the cloud of spray with a faint and fantastic illumi- 
nation at its base, which faded out in the dim light of the 
stars as it ascended ; the peculiarly deep but muffled and 
solemn monotone of the falling water by night; the 
livid hue imparted to the faces of the quiet but deeply 



148 . Niagara. 

interested spectators, all made it memorable and im- 
pressive. 

When the Prince visited the American side some of the 
good people thought it a little singular that he should 
avoid their well laid plank sidewalks and travel in the 
middle of the street. As the Prince with a single com- 
panion crossed the Ferry unheralded and quite informally 
for a stroll on Goat Island — the village police having 
received no instructions to see that he should not be 
annoyed — it was said, probably with some exaggeration,, 
that he soon had an escort of juveniles, and as he 
stopped a moment to look at the Rapids, a young repub- 
lican sovereign, unabashed by the royal presence, and 
with that passion so common to the feline, canine, equine 
and human species, to touch everything which excites 
their curiosity, tested the quality of the Prince's broad- 
cloth, saying to a comrade, as he lifted one of his coat- 
tails, '' Feel of that Bob, a'int it soft?'' The Prince took 
it good naturedly, and with true English sturdiness held 
on the even tenor of his way, the police by this time 
securing him a free course. 

In December 1837 the steamer Caroline c^m.^ ^.0^x1 
from Buffalo to aid, it was said, the so-called Patriots, then 
engaged in an insurrection against the Canadian Govern- 
ment. A motley collection of adventurers on Navy Island 
constituted the disturbing, not to say attacking, force. 
At Chippawa was stationed quite a body of Canadian 
Militia, under the command of Colonel — afterward Sir — 
Allan McNabb, who had the good fortune to win his 
spurs in a single bloodless campaign. By his direction a 



Local History and Incidents. 149 

boat expedition was sent to attack the Caroline^ as she lay 
at the old Schlosser dock. In the melee one American 
was killed. The steamer was set on fire, and her fasten- 
ings must have been burnt away as also a part of her upper 
works, since the writer, ten years later, while returning 
from a fishing expedition, discovered her smoke-pipe lying 
on the bottom of the river in a quiet basin not thirty rods 
below the dock. 

A catfish of moderate dimensions appeared to be keep- 
ing house in it and, with his head barely projecting from 
one end, was serenely watching the current for whatever 
game it might bring to his iron parlor. After the new 
bridges were built connecting the three Sisters with Goat 
Island, the guides and drivers, in their desire to enhance 
the interest of the scene, astonished travelers by inform- 
ing that it was the boiler of the Caroline which caused the 
extraordinary elevation of the water which we have before 
referred to as the Leaping Rock, 

Nine miles from the Falls is the Tuscarora Reservation 
of four thousand acres. On this there are about three 
himdred and fifty Indians, mostly half-breeds, engaged in 
agricultural pursuits, which supply a portion of their neces- 
sities. The Indian women who are seen at the Falls in 
the summer season working and vending different articles 
of bead work belong to this community. Every stranger 
who may purchase any of their articles will only pay an 
infinitesimal portion of the indefinitely large sum still due 
to them from their Christian neighbors. For the Tusca- 
roras have not been more fortunate than others of their 
race in bargaining with their white brothers, and their 



150 Niagara. 

lands are now stripped of the fine oak timber and valuable 
wood which stood upon it a few years since, all sold' in 
telescopic quantities for microscopic prices. 

As a compensation for this system of robbery we helped 
to maintain a Christian missionary among them for a few 
years, and we boast that they are all Protestants. The 
value of the conversion it may be difficult for the Indians 
to determine, but if they are to meet their white Christian 
friends in the Happy Hunting Grounds beyond the Great 
River, probably they devoutly cherish the hope that these 
friends may be vastly improved in their morals before or 
by the emigration. 

Concerning the manufactories, shops, rubbish and litter 
along the race near the brink of the American Falls, 
which appear so uncouth and inharmonious, and which 
are noticed by strangers as being a desecration of the 
scene, it is but just to remark that the utihzation of the 
water power here, in the easiest and most economical 
manner, was one of the imperative necessities of the early 
settlement of the country. For many years a large terri- 
tory, lying on both sides of the river, was dependent upon 
the manufacturing, repairing and milling facilities of this 
place. For furnishing these water-power, in those days, 
was the only agent. And the name — Manchester—given 
to the place by its early settlers only foreshadowed their 
hope that it would one day rival its great English proto- 
type. But the introduction of steam, the concentration 
of different kinds of manufactures at different points, and 
the production of large quantities of any given article at 
one establishment, the facilities furnished for easy and 



Local History and Incidents. 151 

rapid distribution of the products by canals and railroads, 
have revolutionized the method of conducting this branch 
of industry. 

There are fewer manufactories in the village now than 
there were thirty years ago, and if there should be any 
considerable increase in the number hereafter, it is proba- 
ble that they will be located on the hydraulic canal, which 
has been excavated at so much expense ; which leaves the 
river a mile above the Falls, and empties into the chasm, 
half a mile below them. 

Their present location is becoming too valuable for 
such uses, and the time cannot be far distant when they 
will all be removed with their attendant annoyances. 
And then it may be hoped that the narrow alley along the 
river bank will be widened and converted into a pleasant 
boulevard. Even more earnest must be the hope that 
Bath Island will be cleared of all unsightly and discordant 
incumbrances. 

Merely as a matter of curiosity an estimate has been 
made of the time required to cut the river chasm from 
Lewiston up, six miles. In the last hundred and seventy- 
five years certain masses of rock have fallen, it is stated, 
from the water-covered face of the cataract. The surface 
measure of each mass was estimated and given at the 
time. The supposition is made that each break extended 
to the bottom of the fall, although the whole mass did not 
fall at once. Of course, the substructure must have 
worn out before the superstructure could have gone 
down. The further supposition is made that the projec- 
tion noticed by Father Hennepin, now fallen, and under 



152 Niagara. 

which four coaches could pass abreast, was twenty-four 
feet wide, and that it extended from the American shore 
to Goat Island. It is also supposed that there have been 
abrasions by piecemeal that were not noticed and that 
equalled all the others. The number of cubic feet in these 
two masses has been ascertained. Then it is supposed 
that this combined mass was spread out over a surface 
•one thousand feet wide and one hundred and sixty feet 
deep, the average width though less than the average 
depth of the Fall, as it was below the Ferry. Omitting 
fractions the following is the result : — 

The whole mass contains 12,000,000 cubic feet. This 
would cover a surface 1,000 feet by 160 feet to the depth 
of 76 feet. This for one hundred and seventy-five years 
is 4 inches ^per year. At this rate to cut back six miles 
would require 72,000 years ; a mere shadow of time com- 
pared with the age of the corralline limestone over which 
the water flows. 



PART FOUR. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

POETRY. 

Poetry — Table Rock albums — Light literature — More serious 
efforts — Colonel Porter — Willis G. Clark — Lord Morpeth 
— M. F. Tupper— A. S. Ridgley— J. G. C. Brainard. 

IF this chapter were to be confined to fitting words 
fitly spoken upon the great theme, it would be very 
short. At best it will not be long. 

Before the last fall of Table Rock, in 1850, there stood 
upon it for many years a comfortable summer-house, 
where people could take refuge from the spray, look at 
the Falls, get refreshments, and also guides and dresses 
to go under the sheet. In the sitting-room was a large 
round table, on which were placed a number of albums, 
as they were called. In these visitors could write what- 
ever thoughts or sentiments might be suggested by the 
scene. With the grand reality before them but few per- 
sons attempted anything serious ; by far the greater num- 
ber adopting the facetious vein. It was emphatically 
light literature. One or two collections of it have been 
published, furnishing the reader with only a hapworth of 
sense to an intolerable quantity of nonsense. A few 

K 



1 54 Niagara. 

specimens will satisfy the most absorbing taste. A Wall 
street muse shrunken, perhaps, by mammon worship^ 
can only say : * 

" I came from Wall street 
To see this water sheet. 
Having seen this water sheet, 
I return to Wall street.'' 



The next versicle is doubtless rather slanderous : 



'* The goose we know securely rides 
O'er crested waves and foaming tides ; 
If all who gaze on thee were floating there, 
What flocks, Niagara, would thy bosom bear !'' 

There was probably more truth than poetry in the fol- 
lowing ; 

" I have come to see Niagara Falls 

Spread out in all their glorious beauty; 
And I have come to see them without 
A d d cent of money." 

Some tender swain who seems to have found more 
spray than sunshine dubitates in this couplet : 

" Great is the mystery of Niagara's waters. 
But more mysterious still are some men's daughters,'^ 



Poetry. 155 

A more fortunate Strephon perpetrates the following 
sibylant versicle : 

" On Table Rock we did embrace, 
And there we stood both face to face. 
The moon was up ; the wind was high ; 
I kiss'd her, and she kissed I/' 

A more ambitious beholder having tried the serious 
and ended in its opposite, some critic wrote beneath his 
lines the oft repeated quotation : 

"'Tis but a step from the sublime to the ridiculous;'' 

whereupon the next critic hit the last as follows : 

" The Falls the one; the other you/' 

A duo each of flats and sharps furnish this running 
stave : 

" How lonely and desolate would the life of man be without 

Woman." 

" What has woman to do with the Falls ? 

Quip.'' 

" If woman has nothing to do with the Fall, I should like 
to know who has, since she engineered the first one herself ! 

Crank." 

"And what a fall was there, my countrymen ! 

Shakespeare, by Clink." 



156 Niagara, 

Another versifier, considering the hopelessness of the 
case, contents himself with these lines : 

^^ I fain would write, but my muse 

Finds something here to stagger her; 
And brain and pen alike refuse 
To picture grand Niagarer." 

The following practical view from a New York city- 
muse, was written before the day of the New Court 
House. That with a Tammany controller would have 
beggared even the great Persian millionaire : 

*^ The wealth of Croesus might have built 
A thousand city halls; 
But what a sight it must have cost 
To build Ni-ag-ra Falls ^P 

Of a far better quality are the following lines : 

"To view Niagara Falls, one day 
A Parson and a Tailor took their way. 
The Parson cried, while rapt in wonder, 
And listening to the Cataract's thunder, 
' Lord! how thy works amaze our eyes, 
And fill our hearts with vast surprise !' 
The Tailor merely made this note : 
^ Lord! what a place to sponge a coat !' '* 

But the most popular of the facetious rhymes about 
Niagara are the following : 



Poetry, 157 



"thoughts on visiting NIAGARA. 

'* I wonder how long youVe been a roarin' 
At this infernal rate : 
I wonder if all youVe been a porin'' 
Could be ciphered on a slate. 

" I wonder how such a thund'rin' sounded 
When all New York was woods ; 
I suppose some Indians have been drownded 
When rains have raised your floods. 

'^ I wonder if wild stags and buffaloes 
Hav'nt stood where now I stand ; 
Well, ^spose — bein' scared at first — they stub'd their toes^ 
I wonder where they^d land ! 

" I wonder if the rainbow^s been a shinin^ 
Since sunrise at creation ; 
And this water-fall been underminin' 
With constant spateration ! 

" That Moses never mentioned ye, Fve wondered, 
While other things describing 
My conscience ! how loud you must have thundered 
While the deluge was subsidin' ! 

" My thoughts are strange, magnificent and deep,, 
While I look down on thee. 
Oh ! what a splendid place for washing sheep 
Niagara would be ! 

** And oh ! what a tremendous water power 
Is wasted o'er its edge ! 
One man might furnish all the world with flour 
With a single privilege. 



158 Niagara, 

^^ I wonder how many times the lakes have all 
Been emptied over here ? 
Why Clinton did'nt feed the Grand Canawl 
From hence, I think is queer.^^ 



As a fitting finale of these humorous conceits, we may 
append a bit of information which could not well be intro- 
duced in its proper place. The origin of the name of the 
'' DeviPs Hole '' is not known. None of the early records 
contain it. This fact having been mentioned in the pre- 
sence of. a New Englander, who had a stock of juvenile 
rhymes outside of Mother Goose, he suggested the fol- 
lowing as a solution of the question : 

" The Lord made man, and man made money; 
The Lord made bees, and bees made honey; 
The Lord made the Devil, and the Devil made sin; 
The Lord made a hole and put the Devil in." 

The general belief has been that his Kine-footed Ma- 
jesty had his head quarters at the other end of the State. 
It must, however, be confessed that of late years he has 
spent much time in the rural districts. It is also evident 
that he was very active among bur Canadian friends from 
i860 to 1865. 



The most graceful rhymes indigenous to the locality 



' Poetry, 159 

are the following by the late Colonel Porter, who was an 
artist both with the pencil and the pen. They were written 
for a young relative in playful explanation of a sketch he 
had drawn at the top of a page in her Album, represent- 
ing the Falls in the distance, and an Indian chief and 
two Europeans in the foreground : 

*^^An Artist, underneath his sign, (a masterpiece, of course), 
Had written, to prevent mistakes, ' This represents a horse '! 
So ere I send my Album Sketch, lest connoisseurs should err, 
I think it well my Pen should be my Art^s interpreter. 

^' A chieftain of the Iroquois, clad in a bison's skin. 

Had led two travelers through the wood, La Salle and 

He7inepin. 
He points, and there they, standing, gaze upon the ceaseless 

flow 
Of waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago. 

^^ Those three are gone, and little heed our worldly gain or 

loss — 
The Chief, the Soldier of the Sword, the Soldier of the Cross. 
One died in battle, one in bed, and one by secret foe ; 
But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago. 

^^ Ah, me ! what myriads of men, since then, have come and 

gone; 
What states have risen and decayed, what prizes lost and 

won ; 
What varied tricks the juggler, Time, has played with all 

below : 
But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago. 



i6o Niagara. 

"What troops of tourists have encamped upon the river^s 

brink; 
What poets shed from countless quills, Niagaras of ink ; 
What artist armies tried to fix the evanescent bow 
Of the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago. 



And stately inns feed scores of guests from well replenished 

larder, 
And hackmen drive their horses hard, but drive a bargain, 

harder ; 
And screaming locomotives rush in anguish to and fro : 
But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago, 

" And brides of every age and clime frequent the island's 

bower, 
And gaze from off the stone-built perch — hence called the 

Bridal Tower— 
And many a lunar belle goes forth to meet a lunar beau, 
By the waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago. 

" And bridges bind thy breast, Oh stream! and buzzing mill- 
wheels turn. 

To show, like Sampson^ thou art forced thy daily bread to 
earn : 

And steamers splash thy milk-white waves, exulting as 
they go. 

But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago. 

" Thy banks no longer are the same that early travelers 

found them. 
But break and crumble now and then like other banks 

around them ; 



Poetry, i6i 

And on their verge our life sweeps on — alternate joy and woe * 
But the waters fall as once they fell two hundred years ago, 

" Thus phantoms of a by-gone age have melted like the spray. 

And in our turn we too shall pass, the phantoms of to-day : 

But the armies of the coming time shall watch the ceaseless 

flow 
Of waters falling as they fell two hundred years ago/' 

On turning to the more serious rhythmic utterances on 
the great theme, the reader naturally experiences a feel- 
ing of disappointment that a scene w^hich has filled and 
charmed so many eyes should have found but a single 
interpreter — one who never saw it, and who fortunately 
wrote concerning it only nineteen lines. The sublimest 
act of the Creation is described in ten words. Only 
those who see Niagara know how fast the tongue is 
bound when the thought struggles most for utterance. 
One who seems to have experienced this feeling thus 
expresses it : 

" I came to see; 
I thought to write; 
I am but dumb.^' 

The late Mr. Willis G. Clark thus expands — and 
weakens — the same sentiment : 

" Here speaks the voice of God — let man be dumb^ 
Nor with his vain aspiring hither come. 
That voice impels the hollow-sounding floods,, 
And like a Presence fills the distant woods. 



1 62 Niagara, 

These groaning rocks the Almighty's finger piled ; 
For ages here his painted bow has smiled, 
Mocking the* changes and the chance of time — 
Eternal, beautiful, serene, sublime !" 

Only the three first of the following pieces are from the 
Table Rock Albums. The late Lord Morpeth was poet- 
ical, if not a poet, as his lines abundantly prove : — 

"NIAGARA FALLS. — BY LORD MORPETH. 

^^ There^s nothing great or bright, thou glorious Fall ! 
Thou mayest not to the fancy's sense recall. 
The thunder-riven cloud, the light'ning's leap, 
The stirring of the chambers of the deep ; 
Earth's emerald green, and many tinted dyes, 
The fleecy whiteness of the upper skies ; 
The tread of armies thickening as they come, 
The boom of cannon and the beat of drum ; 
The brow of beauty and the form of grace. 
The passion and the prowess of our race ; 
The song of Homer in its loftiest hour. 
The unresisted sweep of human power ; 
Britannia's trident on the azure sea, 
America's young shout of Liberty! 
Oh ! may the waves which madden in thy deep 
There spend their rage nor climb the encircling steep; 
And till the conflict of thy surges cease 
The nations on thy banks repose in peace." 

The following was written before the advent of the 
spiritualistic Misses Fox : 



Poetry, 163 

^^ A scene so vast, so wildly grand 
May well a mortaFs mind amaze, 
For e'en the swift- wing'd Angel-band 
On Mercy's errands stop to gaze/' 

A meek and reverent beholder says : 

" I dare not write my name, 
Where God hath set his seal/' 

In the following example of high bosh the ^'Proverbiar' 
philosopher is his own peer. It is only introduced be- 
cause it was the text for a better lyric from which some 
extracts are given: 

^' NIAGARA.— BY TUPPER. 

" I longed for Andes ; all around and Alps, 
Hoar kings and priests of Nature robed in snow. 
Throned as for judgment in a solemn row. 
With icy mitres on their giant scalps, 
Dumb giants frowning at the strife below. 

^* I longed for the sublime. Thou art too fair, 
Too fair, Niagara, to be sublime ! 
In calm, slow strength thy mighty floods do flow 
And stand a cliff of Cataracts in the air, 
Yet all too beauteous. Water bride of Time ! 

^^ Veiled in soft mists and cinctured by the bow. 
Thy pastoral charms may fascinate the sight. 
But have not power to set my soul aglow, 
E^aptured by fear and wonder and delight." 



1 64 Niagara, 

The lyric above referred to, and from which the fol- 
lowing extracts are made, was written by the late Mr. A. 
S. Ridgely, of Baltimore, Md. : 

" Man lays his sceptre on the ocean waste^ 
His foot-prints stiffen in the Alpine snows^ 
But only God moves visibly in Thee, 
Oh King of Floods ! that with resistless fate 
Down plungest in thy mighty width and depth, 
•jf- -X- -Jf- -jf -jf Amazement, terror, fill, 
Impress and overcome the gazer's soul. 
Man's schemes and dreams and petty littleness 
Lie open and revealed. Himself far less — 
Kneeling before thy great confessional — 
Than are bubbles of the passing tides. 
Words may not picture thee, nor pencil paint 
Thy might of waters, volumed vast and deep; 
Thy many-toned and all pervading voice; 
Thy wood-crown'd Isle, fast anchored on the brink 
Of the dread precipice; thy double stream. 
Divided, yet in beauty unimpaired; 
Thy wafry caverns and thy crystal walls; 
Thy crest of sunlight and thy depths of shade^ 
Boiling and seething like a Phlegethon 
Amid the wind-swept and convolving spray^ 
Steady as Faith and beautiful as Hope. 
There, of beam and cloud the fair creation. 
The rainbow arches its ethereal hues. 
From flint and granite in compacture strong ; 
Not with steel thrice hardened — but with the wave 
Soft and translucent — did the new-born Time 
Chisel thy altars. Here hast thou ever poured 
Earth's grand libation to Eternity, 



Poetry, 165 

Thy misty incense rising unto God — 
The God that was and is and is to be." 

But the noblest lines inspired by the great Cataract 
were written by a poet who never saw them, the late 
John G. C. Brainard. They were written at a single 
short sitting, in answer to a call for ^^ copy " for the head 
of the literary column of the Connecticut Mirror of Hart- 
ford, which he then edited. They are a true inspiration : 

^^THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. 

^^ The thoughts are strange that crowd into my brain 
While I look upward to thee. It would seem 
As if God poured thee from his ' hollow hand ' 
And hung his bow upon thine awful front, 
And spoke in that loud voice which seem'd to him 
Who dwelt in Patmos for his Saviour's sake, 
*' The sound of many waters,' and had bade 
Thy flood to chronicle the ages back, 
And notch his centuries in the eternal rocks. 

^^ Deep calleth unto deep. And what are we 
That hear the question of that voice sublime ? 
Oh ! what are all the notes that ever rung 
From War's vain trumpet by thy thundering side 1 
Yea, what is all the riot man can make 
In his short life to thy unceasing roar ! 
And yet, bold babbler, what art thou to Him 
Who drown'd a world and heap'd the waters far 
Above its loftiest mountains 1 — a light wave 
That breaks and whispers of its Maker's might." 

THE END. 



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